


Class_JL . .A 

Book_' fig ^ 



















































JULIUS CAESAR; 

' ' 1 

Did he Cross the Channel? 

^ - ^ |v 

REVIEWED; 


By JOHN WAINWRIGHT, 

\ I 

MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA; AUTHOR OF THE 
“ HISTORY OF THE WAPENTAKE OF STRAFFORD AND TICKHILL,” 

IN THE COUNTY OF YORKj ENGLAND; ETC. 





/ 


LONDON: 

PUBLISHED BY JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 

36, SOHO S QJJ ARE. 

1869. 


And by John Campbell, No. 740 Sansom Street, 
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. 




—-- 

































ERRATA. 


In consequence of the Author’s distance from the Press, he 
was debarred the opportunity of supervising the revised sheets; 
a few orthographical errors will be seen, most of which, it is 
hoped, will be found corrected in the following list, which the 
Author regrets is so large. 


In page 12, 

« 

16, 

tt 

18, 

tt 

* 5 > 

tt 

3 1 , 

tt 

36, 

tf 

37, 

n 

39, 

tt 

43 , 

tt 

48, 

ft 

49 , 

tt 

53 , 

ft 

63, 

tt 

81, 

tt 

83, 

tt 

96, 

tt 

109, 


line 13, for synoposis, read synopsis, 
lines 20, 21, for solostice, read solstice, 
line 18, for ortaconspia , read orta conspexit. 

Note, for Verulanmium, read Verolanium. 
line 23, for lac onquete , read la conqueste. 

“ 8, for Caesar sailed, read Caesar, who sailed. 

“ 3, wherever Siene occurs, read Seine. 

“ 14, for Pentinger, read Peutinger. 

Note 2, for na, read ea. 

9 

line 6, for had broken, read and had broken. 
Note 2, for quam ad , read quam ad fecerat. 

“ 3, for Calvary, read Cavalry, 

line 17, for earlier, read early. 

Note 5, for and, read &. 
line 15, for dicta, read ducta. 

“ 13, for Sare, read Yare. 

“ 26, for illusions, read illusion. 










TO THE READER. 


The following brief Review was occasioned 
by the appearance of a small pamphlet, entitled 
cc Julius Caesar, did he Cross the Channel?” by 
the Rev. Scott F. Surtees, Rector ofSprotburgh 
near Doncaster, Yorkshire. In this pamphlet, 
as will be seen, the reverend gentleman attempts 
to remove the Morini of Caesar from the coast 
of Kent to that of Norfolk, on the North Sea; 
and boldly asserts that Caesar “never set foot 
at Boulogne or Calais; never crossed the chan¬ 
nel, or set eyes on Deal or Dover!” 

This subject, now so popular in England 

and France, and which is also attracting the 

attention of the literati of the United States, 

was recently reviewed by myself, in a series of 

letters addressed to the gentlemanly editor of 

the Doncaster Gazette, which elicited from 

the author of the pamphlet two or three letters 

1* 



V 


TO THE READER. 


in reply, through the same medium. These 
latter letters have been republished in a thin 
pamphlet of about eighteen pages, in which the 
writer reiterates his heresy, by adding further 
evidence in proof of his position; which, I am 
persuaded, tend rather to darken than to illus¬ 
trate his more early conceptions. 

I would likewise further add, that this Review 
is based on principles enunciated on a former 
occasion, much enlarged and more fully devel¬ 
oped. To elucidate and defend the position 
so long and so universally entertained by our 
best historians, and most astute antiquaries and 
archaeologists, in relation to Caesar’s embark¬ 
ation at a port of the Morini, south of the 
Schelde, and his disembarkation on the shore 
of Kent, against the error of Mr. Surtees, is 
the object of this Review. I have, therefore, 
dedicated it chiefly to that phase of the subject, 
and disregarded several minor matters, which 
will follow the fate of the Rhenish theory. 

In this attempt the writer makes no preten¬ 
tions to argue the question, as to the precise 
point in Kent at which Caesar landed, in any 


TO THE READER. 


Vll 


other manner than would seem necessary in the 
illustration of his subject. 

To my kind friend, Horatio Gates Jones, 
Esq., of Philadelphia, for his valuable aid and 
solicitude in the progress of this Review; to 
B. H. Beedham, Esq., of Ashley House, near 
Kimbolton, England, who gratuitously fur¬ 
nished me with a recent tractate on Caesar’s 
expeditions to Britain, together with some use¬ 
ful suggestions; and to Gen. J.W. DePeyster, 
of Tivoli, N. Y., for important material, I beg 
leave to return my sincere thanks. 

In thus adding to the many works on this 
interesting portion of British history, the writer 
has no apology to offer. The importance of 
the question and the demands of Truth will 
justify the endeavor to expose what he regards 
as an abortive attempt to uproot one imaginary 
error by the substitution of a real one; and is 
unwilling to believe that many will follow in 
the reverend gentleman’s wake. 

J. W. 

Lower Merion, Montgomery Co., ^ 

Penna., U. S. America, V 

June 21, 1869. ) 












CONTENTS. 


.. f 

Page 

Ambiorix, ..... 

• 5°, 65, 101 

Armorica, .... 

• 3 6 

Antiquities, .... 

• 9 1 ! 95 t io« 

Britain, reached in four hours, 

15 

“ distance from Gaul, 

15 

u left behind by Caesar, 

21 

“ Expeditions to, 

21, 22, 23, 25 

Boulogne and Bononia, . 

• 39 

Brittia, not “Britannia,” 

IO5 

Caesar never “set foot in Kent!!” 

15 

“ Winter Quarters, 

. 45, 46 

Cromer, .... 

79, 108, IIO, 119 

Cassivellaunus, . . 24, 25, 26, 

, 87, 93, 117, IIO 

Coway Stakes, 

98, IOI 



X 


CONTENTS. 





Page 

Camps, Roman, 

• • 


100 

Claudius, . . 52, 

54 , 55 , 

95 

, II5, Il6, Il8 

Cirencester, Richard of, 

• • 


• 42 , 83 

Caligula, 

• 

• 

• . • 52 

Carausius, 

• • 


55 

Chilham, 

• 

• 

• 9 1 , 93 , 94 

Chartham, 

• • 


. 90, 93, 101 

Dewiz, .... 

• 

• 

• 3 1 

DePeyster, J. W., 

• • 


58 

Distances, 

• 

• 

. 75, 85, 86 

Eyndius, 

• • 


37 

Florus’ junction of bridges, 

> • 

• 

45 , 55 

Gessoriacum, 

• • 


. 39,40,115 

Grain, or Branc , 

• 

• 

. 103 

Hunstanton, 

• • 


. 19, 108, 111 

Hanworth, 

• 

• 

109, in 

Julian, 

• • 


. 64, 104 

Kent, (four Kings of, 27, 1 

1—1 

oc 

94, 95, 103, 107 

Maa-Scheldic Archipelago, 

• 

• 

28 

Morini, 

• 34, 

37 , 

38,49,62,65 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


Menapii, 

Nervii, 

Oysters, 

Pharos, 

Portus Itius, . 
Roman Roads, 


Page 

. 29, 60, 6l, 62 

• 3 8 , 46, 5°, 62, 65 

80 

. . . 42 

27, 87 

• • • 43 > 

79 , 8 3 
• 27 , 47 , 55 

% 

33 . 47 
7 1, 112 
89, 92, 24 


Rutupia, ..... 

Rhine, Caesar did not sail from, . 

ct Caesar’s Campaign on the, . 

Surtees’ very meagre account, 

Stour river, ..... 

Strabo, . 61, 68, 71, 104, 108, 112, 113, 114 

cc parallelism, ..... 75 

Time, divisions of doubtful, . . . . 15 

Thames, ..... 25^ 53 . /^. 95 ? 99 
Toxandri, ..... 61, 62, 63, 64 

Valleys,.46, 56, 57 

Watchers, nightly, . . . . . . 17 


JULIUS CAESAR. 


Reverend Sir : 

In my rather lengthy criticism on your 
pamphlet, entitled Julius Caesar, Did he 
cross the channel ? I hinted, that if life and 
health permitted I might give to the public 
a more ample account of the reasons which 
induced me to so decidedly denounce much of 
what you have advanced in your extraordinary 
Essay on the Invasion of Britain by Julius 
Caesar, B. C. 55 years. 

In the performance of this duty, I purpose 
to exercise candor, courtesy, and moderation, 
knowing well that a contrary conduct is a sure 
indication of a feeble effort, or a weak cause. 

My attention to your pamphlet was first di¬ 
rected by a notice of it in the Doncaster 
Gazette . Startled by a question so striking 
and so strange, I felt desirous to ascertain the 

grounds which you assumed in support of your 

2 



Caesar . 


i o 


novel theory, and through the kindness of my 
nephew, I was speedily furnished with a copy 
from England. 

From the earliest period of my historical 
studies, now numbering over sixty years, I have 
been taught to regard the £C Commentaries” of 
Caesar as fully sufficient to establish a reason¬ 
ably correct idea of all the most important cir¬ 
cumstances connected with his invasion of 
Britain ; but I was not aware that any attempt 
would be, or had been made, to remove from 
the coast of Kent the military transaction of 
that celebrated chieftain to the coast of Norfolk. 
Some doubts I do know were entertained at a 
very early period, and are yet doubted by able 
and well informed writers, in relation to the ex¬ 
tent and character of his military exploits in 
Britain.* And I am disposed to believe that 
the bravery, courage and gallant conduct of our 
hardy ancestors proved equal to the task of 
driving back to the shores of Gaul that wily 
and ambitious C£ conqueror of the world”—a 
sphere too narrow to stay his inflated pride. 

* Asinius Polo very much questioned the impartiality of his 
Commentaries, even in his lifetime, Sent, in Julio , 56, “not 
compiled with sufficient exactness and fidelity,” See Sammes’ 
Britannia, 186. 






Caesar . 


11 

Your chief object would seem to have been 
directed to the real or supposed fallacies in the 
Life of J ulius Caesar, by the Emperor of France, 
Napoleon III, who has certainly brought to 
the study of his subject considerable ability, 
energy and erudition; but he has failed to set 
the matter at rest. That the army of invasion 
assembled at and embarked for Britain from the 
coast of the Morini, and landed on that of Kent, 
is, I believe, too well settled to suffer removal 
by the authority of any documentary evidence 
yet submitted to my inspection ; and which it 
is the purpose of this brief review to elucidate 
and establish. The main difficulty lies in the 
legitimate settlement of the precise location of 
the Morini, which you contend joined the 
Menapian division of Gaul. This adjusted, an 
important position is achieved. 

The history of that eventful movement is 
full of interest, especially to the local historian, 
and well adapted to elicit the attention of the 
patriot and the scholar. Boldness of assertion, 
and unwarranted conclusions usually invite in¬ 
quisitive inquiry, and not unfrequently tend to 
establish positions, otherwise never called in 
question. But this is not exactly the case in 
this instance, several sites and various localities 




Caesar . 


I 2 

have been assigned for the disembarkation of 
Caesar’s army; but all, I believe, have hitherto 
been confined to the shores of Kent, until your 
daring and neoterick pamphlet has somewhat 
disturbed the unanimity of the fact, and may 
probably rouse the energies of the scholar, and 
the erudition of the antiquary, which, if 
brought to bear on the subject, will, I venture 
to predict, result in the demolition of your 
fabric, and a more full confirmation of the 
opinion never before disputed. 

In my animadversions on your pamphlet, I 
gave a synoposis of cc Caesar’s Commentaries” 
on his wars in Britain and Gaul, with a view 
that the uninformed reader might more fully 
comprehend the import and character of an his¬ 
torical fact not often found in newspaper cor¬ 
respondence. But, as it is the intention of 
this brief essay to meet in some degree a diff¬ 
erent class of readers, I shall omit that part of 
my review, and supply its place by an enlarge¬ 
ment of my remarks on matters more pertinent 
and more immediately connected with your 
speculations on the Morini, &c. In studying 
this question, it is requisite to pay a strict re¬ 
gard to the motive which induced Caesar to 
undertake so hazardous an experiment, and 




Caesar. 


*3 


which he was soon taught to view as no trifling 
affair. In the details of his military movements, 
his tactical evolutions and systematic maneu¬ 
vering, he may generally be followed with 
unfaltering faith; but the brilliant results 
which he so arrogantly claims, should be 
watched with vigilance and adopted with care. 

But you sir, gravely assert that Caesar, 
ct never set foot at Boulogne or Calais; never 
crossed the channel or set eyes on Deal or 
Dover; but that he sailed from some place in 
front of the mouths of the Rhine or Schelde, 
most probably from a peninsula, formerly the. 
foreshore of Walcheren, and that he made the 
coast of Britain in his first expedition off 
Cromer,” county of Norfolk, washed by the 
North sea and opposite to Britain; which in 
the latter case is true, in the same degree as 
it is said that Spain lies opposite to Britain. 
Caesar tells us that after a voyage of four hours, 
he approached the coast of Britain, at a place 
unfit for landing—that he cast anchor—held a 
council of war, waited awhile for the arrival 
of his absent ships, which were to sail from a 
farther port. * But they not appearing, he 


* In ulteriorem porturn, iv. 23. 







14 Caesar. 

- ( , _ — - — 

weighed anchor at nine o’clock, # sailed coast¬ 
wise eight miles, and landed on a plain and 
open shore. J This language of the <c Com¬ 
mentaries” is unambiguous and intelligible. 
But you say that Caesar could not reach Britain 
in less than twelve to fourteen hours, which, 
notwithstanding your dictum to the contrary, 
I will show in the sequel that his disembark- 
ment was on the shore of Kent, which, with 
the aid of a fair wind, could be easily reached 
in four hours, being according to Caesar only 
thirty Roman miles. Therefore, it is manifest 
that Caesar did not sail from any port located 
near the mouths of the Rhine or Schelde, a 
distance of one hundred and forty miles from 
Deal, and not much less from the nearest point 
on the shore of Norfolk, say one hundred and 
twenty-five or one hundred and thirty miles. 

In your reprint, p. 9, you ask, C£ Why did 
the passage from Boulogne take that length of 
time, eight to ten hours? c We know from St. 
Paul’s account that with a fair wind the Roman 
ships sailed well; from Rhegium to Poteoli, 

* Ad nonara horam, iv. 23 

f Circiter octo millia passuum ab eo loco, ibid : son; e say seven 
miles. 

4 B G. iv. 23. 






Caesar. 


*5 


nearly two hundred miles, was done in about 
twenty-four hours ; why not from Walcheren 
to Norfolk coast, about half that distance in 
about half that time?’” Now, sir, you here 
erroneously assume that Caesar was ten hours 
in accomplishing his first trip to Britain. That 
the number of hours last named elapsed before 
he disembarked his troops may be allowed; but 
it must not be forgotten, that after his arrival 
off Dover, in about four hours, 446 and seeing 
the preparations made for his reception, to¬ 
gether with the unfitness of the shore, and the 
absence of the navy, he thought it prudent to 
castanchor, which he did, and waited in that 
position for five hours,*f* but the fleet not yet 
being in sight heweighed anchor and sailed coast¬ 
wise eight miles and landed, as is supposed at 
Deal, in Kent; hence it will be seen that he 
was at sea about ten to twelve hours, but only 
from three to four hours in crossing the channel. 

With the mode of calculation adopted by a 
majority of writers on this subject, the division 
of time, as applied to Caesar’s invasion of 
England, I have never been satisfied. That 
the natural day in Caesar’s age, B. C. 55, was 


* Circiter quarta on hora diei. 


f That is, ad nonam horam. 






Caesar. 


j 6 

from sunrise to sunset, may be true, but the 
commencement of the day has been different 
in different countries, and not always uniform 
in the same country. 

The difference between the natural and equi¬ 
noctial hours, founded on the length of the day, 
would not, of course, be well understood by 
the common people, and therefore too uncertain 
and vague to be generally useful. To meet this 
difficulty, “Anaximander, or according to others, 
his disciple Anaximenes is said to have made the 
Greeks acquainted with the use of the Babylonian 
chronometer, or sun-dial, by means of which 
the natural day was divided into twelve equal 
spaces of time.”* Smith's Diet. Ant. Art. Dies. 
But if the twelve equal divisions were unequal 
in their duration, in what manner and to what 
extent were they amended? The generally re¬ 
ceived opinion is that the first Roman hour in 
the summer solostice commenced at 4.27 a. m., 
and ended at 7.33 p. m.; in the winter solostice 
at 7.33 a. m., and ended the day 4.27. Hence 
it will be seen that every hour varied in its 
length throughout the entire year, and conse- 


* Pliny, lib. ii. 78. Anaximenes the Milesian, the disciple of 
Anaximander, lib. ii. 6, discovered the theory of shadows and 
what is called the art of dialing. 







Caesar. 


l 7 


quently no equality was effected. To correct 
this inconvenience and to render the efflux of 
time more generally useful and better under¬ 
stood, artificial aids were adopted by the 
Romans at an early date. Of the three instru¬ 
ments in use, the solarium , or sun-dial, was the 
most simple and effective; but inasmuch as it 
was efficient only during the day and an un¬ 
clouded sky, it was not so generally useful as 
was the clepsydrae, or water measure. This in¬ 
strument was composed of two glass vessels, 
and could be used at all hours during the 
twenty-four with tolerable exactness. It was 
this measure which Caesar used on his voyage 
to Britain, v. 13, ce nisi 3 videbamus certis mensuris 
ex aqua nodes esse breviores quam in continentiC # 
That much confusion in relation to the di¬ 
vision of time among the Greeks and Romans 
is adverted to by Aminianus Marcellinus, in lib . 
xxvi. 2, and Sammes, p. 380, says that the 
Romans divided the whole night into four 
watches, each consisting of three hours. The 
first began at 6 p. m. and the last ended at 6 
a. m., so also Dr. Giles. 


* Unless we saw by certain measures of water the nights to be 
shorter than on the Continent. 


2* 







i8 


Caesar. 


In this stage of our inquiry it may not be 
out of place to notice a remark of yours rela¬ 
tive to Caesar’s leaving Britain on his left, in 
his second expedition. On p. 16 of your pam¬ 
phlet you say that he sailed for Britain at sun¬ 
set with a southwest wind. It takes him longer 
to make the passage, as the wind dropped dur¬ 
ing the night and (see p. 6,) Caesar finds that he 
has “left Britain behind him to the left.” The 
Latinity is, “et provectus leni Africo vento interm- 
isso circiter media nocte tenuit non cur sum, et delatus 
longius aestu luce or taconspeait Britanniam relict am 
sub sinistra , v. SB His course would be about 
39 0 15', therefore on the very outset of his voy¬ 
age Britain would be seen on his left. The word 
behind , in Italics, is unauthorized. Major 
Rennel remarks, that Caesar, after reaching the 
coast off Dover, in about two and a half or 
three hours sailing, adds, £C Now this left hand 
I must conceive is spoken in reference to the 
general course from Gaul to Britain, in which 
case the land in question would be on no other 
than the eastern side of Britain,” and therefore 
on his left.* 


* Archaeologia, Vol. 21, p. 501, and Rennelli’s System of 
Herodotus Geog. 





Caesar. 


1 9 


In your reprint, No. ii, p. 14, you say, 
Caesar had started with a S.S.W. wind. If he 
passed Hunstanton (on the shore of the Meta- 
ris Aestu) he would have nothing but the low¬ 
lands and flats of Lincolnshire before him; 
and these not being visible, he would seem to 
have left Britain behind him, to the left. I 
say distinctly and positively that this could not 
have happened as he sailed from Boulogne to 
Deal, or Calais to Dover. I doubt if it could 
have happened anywhere else. To argue this 
question would be a folly. Throughout, it 
will be seen that I assume the account of Caesar 
to be generally consistent, and sufficiently cor¬ 
rect to establish a reasonable history of his 
transactions in Gaul and Britain. That diffi¬ 
culties do occasionally occur will not be ques¬ 
tioned; but I venture to presume they are 
less in extent and fewer in number than are 
those of any other historian of equal date. The 
narrative of his first expedition, it is true, 
is not so full and satisfactory as it were desira¬ 
ble, but what is given is plain, simple, and un¬ 
varnished, affording a consistent version of his 
brief transactions on the shore of Britain. 
Admitting that his last movement along the 
coast between Dover and Deal occupied one 




20 


Caesar . * 


and-a-half or two hours, he would reach the 
latter place before noon, and would therefore 
have ample time- to land his army, fight his 
way through the obstinate opposition and 
bravery of the Britons, throw up entrench¬ 
ments, which would take considerable time and 
much labor, pursue the enemy through an un¬ 
known country, and in face of a force, the 
strength and resources of which he was ignor¬ 
ant, would require care, vigilence and daylight, 
all of which difficulties he accomplished without 
intermission.* But, if on the contrary, he did 
not land before three o’clock p. m., or, accord¬ 
ing to Napoleon, until half-after four, there 
was not time to effect a disembarkation and 
secure his safety before dark ; a measure abso¬ 
lutely requisite, inasmuch as the country was 
unknown to him, and the force and attitude of 


* B. G. iv .23-27, Florus, lib. iii. 10, says “lie, Caesar, 
started from a harbor of the Morini at the third watch and 
reached the Island before mid-day.” Sammes, p. 380. “The 
Romans never suffered their soldiers to lodge one night without 
the camp where they were enclosed with ditch and rampier.” 
“ It is well known,” says Mr. Yates, “Roman armies never 
halted fora single night without forming a regular entrenchment, 
termed castra, capable of receiving within its limits the whole 
body of fighting men, their beasts of burthen and the baggage.” 
Smith's Diet., 244, Ant. 









* Caesar . 


21 


the enemy unascertained. Inflated by ambition, 
and buoyed up by the fallacy of hope, he had 
entertained the idea that the subjugation of 
that barbarous people would be speedly accom¬ 
plished ; but he soon discovered that the task 
of conquest was easier conceived than effected, 
and, after a short and fruitless campaign, he 
found it expedient to recross the channel and 
postpone a further effort to the succeeding 
year. 

His second attempt was rnore elaborate in 
character, but not much more successful in 
results. He conquered, but did not subjugate. 
After having expended much time and labor in 
obtaining and equiping a suitable force, Caesar 
left Labienus on the continent with three le¬ 
gions* and two thousand horse to defend the 
harbor, provide corn, and watch the Gauls, 
while himself, with five legions and a number 
of horse equal to that which he left on the 
continent, set sail for Britain at sunset on July 
20, B. C. 54. f For a while he was driven by 
a gentle southwest wind,if which, about mid- 


* A legion consisted of about 6,000 men ; but the number was 
not always the same. 

fSay^about 7 p. m. Life of Caesar, vol. ii, 220. Caesar, v. 8. 
| Lent Africo ’vento y <v. 8. 




22 


Caesar . 


night, died away, and left his fleet in the power 
of the tide, which, at daybreak, he found had 
carried him far beyond the object of his aim, 
leaving Britain on his left.* Turning with the 
tide, and with the assistance of oars, he arrived 
at the place where he landed the preceding year, 
at about noon, fere meridiano tempore; but no 
enemy was to be seen, having, as he subse¬ 
quently learned, fled on account of the magni¬ 
tude and formidable aspect of the Roman force. 

Disembarking his army, and choosing a suit¬ 
able site for his encampment, he soon became 
acquainted with the direction in which to find 
the British stronghold. Leaving ten cohorts 
and three hundred horse to guard the camp, 
and the navy in charge of Q. Atrius, he ad¬ 
vanced during night about twelve miles, when 
he espied the Britons marching, in full force, 
towards the river Stour , which, becoming 
troublesome, he repulsed. The British en¬ 
campment was located in an adjoining wood, 
strongly fortified and in a good position. The 
Britons were brave and determined. Accus¬ 
tomed to a system of bush-fighting and start¬ 
ling attacks on an enemy, the Romans, being 


* Caesar must have been in the power of an adverse current 





Caesar. 


2 3 


strangers to such a mode of warfare, were 
greatly harrassed. Their sudden and impet¬ 
uous assaults, and a determination to preserve 
entire their position, the enemy felt in peril; 
but, under the shelter of a Tes'tudo> the seventh 
legion threw up a rampart of earth in front of 
the British defences, captured them, and drove 
the occupants out, but did not pursue them. 
Early, however, the next morning, Caesar dis¬ 
patched a force in pursuit of the retreating 
Britons; but before it had proceeded far, his 
General, O. Atrius, sent the appalling news 
that the fleet left in his care had been assailed 
by a severe storm, and was dashed to pieces. 
Alarmed at this unexpected occurrence, Caesar 
called back the party sent in pursuit of the 
enemy, and himself set off* to the strand 
to ascertain the nature and extent of damage 
which the navy had sustained.^ 

After a mature consideration, he ordered that 
the shattered remains of the fleet should be 
dragged on shore and brought within the con¬ 
fines of the camp, and that material be pro¬ 
cured and workmen selected from the camp 
and continent to repair the havoc which the 


* v. io, B. G. 









2 4 


Caesar. 


storm had created.* After an absence of ten 
days he rejoined the army on the Stour. 

During this interval the Britons had not 
been unmindful of their duty, and Caesar 
learned that the enemy had become greatly 
augmented in number, and had called in aid 
the valiant Cassivellaunus. Under the leader¬ 
ship of this famous captain the Britons griev¬ 
ously annoyed the invaders by a series of bold, 
sudden, and murderous assaults, by which the 
enemy were sorely baffled, and were compelled 
to adopt a different system of military tactics. 
The following day was, however, chiefly spent 
in a similar manner of warfare, which seemed 
still to derange their plans and confuse their 
best-concerted schemes. To meet these diffi¬ 
culties, the Romans were obliged to condense 
their strength, concentrate their scattered force, 
and throw their power into one united and 
compact body. With this system of dis- 
cipli*ng the Britons were not familiar, and, 
after repeated rencounters and mutual destruc¬ 
tion, the latter gave way. Discovering their 


* It has been thought that Caesar took with him a considerable 
portion of his force to aid in whatever was necessary to be done. 
This is probable, but I have not seen any evidence to support it. 







Caesar. 


25 

purpose, Caesar marched his army towards the 
dominions of Cassivellaunus, north of the 
Thames. On reaching that river, which was 
fordable only at one place,* and that, too, with 
difficulty, he saw the enemy in full force on the 
opposite bank, which was defended by sharp 
stakes, as well, also, as was the middle of the 
stream, but in the latter case, below the surface 
of the water. These formidable obstructions 
were disregarded. The Rpmans surmounted 
the obstacles, and the Britons were driven 
from their position in disorder and confusion. 

All hope had nearly forsaken the disheart¬ 
ened Cassivellaunus. He disbanded his army, 
with the exception of four thousand chario¬ 
teers, which he retained to watch and harrass 
the enemy. Learning that he was not far dis¬ 
tant from the capital town of Cassivellaunus, 
Caesar resolved to visit it.f During his march 
thither he was closely pursued by the chario¬ 
teers, who embraced every opportunity to 
harrass and punish him; but Caesar pressed 
onward, reached the city, subdued and sacked 


* V. 18. Quod flumen potest transiri omnio uno loco pedibus 
atque hoc aegre. 

f Verulanmium, St. Albans, County of Hertford. 






26 


Caesar. 


it. It was immensely fortified, in the usual 
manner, well garrisoned, and with it fell into 
the possession of the enemy a vast amount of 
provisions and military materials. 

Broken down, discouraged and demoralized, 
a forlorn hope yet flattered his desires. Cassi- 
vellaunus sent messengers to the four chief 
princes of Kent, namely, Cingetorix, Carvitius, 
Taximagulus, and Sigonax, acquainting them 
with his own and the enemy’s condition, direct¬ 
ing them to immediately raise their respective 
quotas, concentrate them, attack the enemy in. 
his camp, wreck his navy, and spread ruin and 
dismay in every possible manner. This they 
attempted to do, but without success. These 
repeated failures, together with the rebellious 
and disaffected conduct of his allies, induced 
him, through the medium of Comius, to sue for 
peace. Overtures were offered and accepted, 
and Caesar set off for the coast, which he 
speedily reached in safety, never to return. 

Perhaps, sir, you may think that I have been 
more prolix in relation to Caesar’s second expe¬ 
dition than were necessary; but I felt desirous 
to give a succinct but faithful version of its 
more salient features for the purpose of facili¬ 
tating a comparison of Caesar with Surtees. 




Caesar. 


2 7 


Now, in this connection, I would ask, if your 
theory be feasible, why were the four kings of 
Kent urged to attack Caesar on the shore of 
Norfolk—on the North Sea, 140 miles dis¬ 
tant? Furthermore, they must reach the scene 
of action by either sea or land, or by both. 
By the former, they had not the means; and 
if by the latter, they must pass the Thames at 
Caesar’s ford, or at an higher point, no lower 
one being eligible. And further, to reach Cro¬ 
mer or its vicinity, they must invade the terri¬ 
tories of the Icini—an enemy’s country. This 
will be referred to hereafter. 

But you aver that Caesar sailed from some 
port near the mouths of the Rhine, Walche- 
ren, or Schelde, a wide range—eighty or ninety 
miles. Now, sir, I would ask you whether, if 
any of the small and numerous islands which lie 
between the Rhine and the Schelde be allowed 
to have been the site of Caesar’s Portus Itius y 
on which of them are we to locate that cele¬ 
brated place? All of them, it is probable, 
were separated at some distance from the main 
land, and from each other, by greater or lesser 
portions of water, and at all times were totally 
ineligible for the purpose of concentrating large 
bodies of men, munitions, &c., for an enter- 



28 


Caesar . 


prise like that which assembled there prepara¬ 
tory to the invasion of Britain by Caesar; nor 
were the shores of the Maa-Scheldic Archipel¬ 
ago, long subsequent to his age, better adapted 
for such a purpose.* Such, remarks Motley, 
were the rivers in the Archipelago which 
coursed through the £C spungy land. Their 
frequent overflow, when forced back upon the 
currents of the stormy sea, rendered the 
country almost uninhabitable. Here, within 
a half-submerged territory, a race of wretched 
ichthyophagi dwelt upon terpen , or mounds, 
which, like beavers, they had raised above the 
almost fluid soil.” Again, the same author 
writes, “The great rivers—the Rhine, the 
Meuse, (Maas,) and the Schelde, had depos¬ 
ited their slime for ages among the dunes and 
sand-banks heaved up by the ocean around 
their mouths. A delta thus formed was, at 
last, rendered habitable for man.')' By nature 
it was a wild morass, in which oozy islands 
and savage forests were interspersed along 
lagoons and shallows—a district partly below 


* See Appach’s British Expeditions, 57, 99. 
f Hence it is maintained “that the Roman authors mention no 
towns in those islands, because none existed in their time 5 for 
Middleburg and Flushing were built long after.” 





Caesar. 


29 


the level of the ocean at its highest tides, sub¬ 
ject to the constant overflow from the rivers, 
and to frequent and terrible inundations from 
the sea.* The Schelde, almost exclusively a 
Belgian river, after leaving its fountains in 
Picardy, flows through the present provinces 
of Flanders and Hainault; in Caesar’s time, it 
was suffocated before reaching the sea in quick¬ 
sands and thickets, which long afforded pro¬ 
tection to the savage inhabitants against the 
Roman arms, and which the slow process ot 
nature and the untiring industry of man have 
since converted into the Archipelago of Zea¬ 
land and South Holland. These islands were 
unknown to the Romans.” . . . “The whole 
territory of the Netherlands was girt with for¬ 
ests. An extensive belt of woodland skirts 
the sea-coast, reaching beyond the mouths of 
the Rhine. Along the outer edge of this bar¬ 
rier, the dunes cast up by the sea were pre¬ 
vented, by the close tangle of thickets, from 
drifting further inward, and thus formed a 
breastwork which time and art were to 
strengthen.” General De Peyster, in a note, 
says the Menapii and Morini alone trusted to 


* Tacitus’ Ann. lib. i, 63. 









3 ° 


Caesar. 


their inaccessible dwelling places, and Caesar 
only conquered them at a very late period— 
perhaps never. Ammianus Marcellinus, in the 
fourth century, says that part of Gaul which is 
inaccessible by reason of morasses, never sub¬ 
mitted to the arms of Caesar.* 

Verstegan, a writer born in London, but in 
early life settled at Antwerp, was well ac¬ 
quainted with the history and topography of 
the Netherlands, testifies to the same facts, f 
Pliny who visited the coast of that archipelago 
has left us a picture of this part of Gaul in his 
time. “The ocean pours in its floods twice 
every day, and produces a perpetual un¬ 
certainty whether the country may be regarded 
as a part of the continent or of the sea. The 
wretched inhabitants take refuge on the sand 
hills or in little huts, which they construct on 
the summits of lofty stakes, whose elevation 
is conformable to that of the highest tides. 
When the sea rises they appear like navigators, 
when it retires they seem as though they had 
been shipwrecked.” ...“ Neither tree nor shrub 
are visible on the shores. The drink of the 


* See his valuable work, Hist, of the Menapii, No. i ; Van 
Kampen, vol. i, p. 13 ; also, Amm. Marcell., lib. xv, 
f p. 81, ed. 1665. 


12 . 




Caesar . 



people is rain-water, which they preserve with 
great care. Their fuel is a sort of turf which they 
gather and form with the hand. And yet, these 
unfortunate beings dare to complain against their 
fate, when they are under the power and incorpo¬ 
rated with the empire of Rome.” (Jib. 16, cap . i.) 
<c Be it so then—Fortune is most kind to many 
just when she means to punish them.”* cc The 
coast,” says Grattan “consisted of sand banks 
and slime alternately overflowed or left im¬ 
perfectly dry. A little further inland trees 
were to be found, but on a soil so marshy, that 
an inundation or a tempest threw down whole 
forests, such as are still at times discovered at 
eight or ten feet below the surface. The sea 
had no limits, the rivers no banks or beds, the 
earth no solidity ; for, according to an author 
of the third century of our era, there was not 
in that immense plain a spot of ground that 
did not yield under the footsteps of man.” f 
In the sixth century, Dewiz, author of an 
elaborate work : the cc Historie Generale de la 
Belgique depuis lac onquete de Caesar,” enum¬ 
erates only seventeen towns which could pass 


* Fortuna multis par cere in pcenam solet. (Laberius, note.) 
f Grattan’s Netherlands, p. 16. 






3 2 


Caesar 


for villas as existing in the Netherlands prior 
to the fifth century, among which he names in 
Flanders, Cassel,— Castellum , Morionrum Tour- 
nai— Turnacum. <f All the streams north of this 
watershed—the Schelde, the Mars, and the 
western branches of the Rhine, belong to the 
great fiat which extends northward along the coast 
from CapGriz Nes to the mouth of the Rhine.” 
Indeed the whole length of that immense mo¬ 
rass was incapable of affording a site fit for the 
assembly of an army one-tenth as large as that 
which Caesar summoned to concentrate in the 
territory of the Morini. De Peyster truly 
asserts, that the Romans had a naval depot at 
Leyden, on the second branch of the Rhine, the 
only one upon the northern sea, except Bou¬ 
logne. * Moreover, the very fact that the 
Morini and the Menapii only neglected to send 
ambassors to Caesar, argues a conviction of 
safety in the position they held, c< since their 
many waters, forests and marshes” were con¬ 
sidered sufficient to repel any foreign foe ;f 


* Gen. de Peyster, Carausius, p. 91. 

f “ Caesar finally subdued Gaul except where their country 
was absolutely inaccessible from its morasses, as we learn from 
Sallust, after a war of ten years, in which both nations suffered 
many disasters. “ Amm. Marc. lib. x-v. 13, Flor us lib. iy . 10. 




Caesar 


33 


while on the contrary, the southern confines of 
the Morini, and along the coast of the channel, 
to beyond Calais no such obstructions were 
interposed. Yet, under all these perils, these 
disadvantages, these insuperable difficulties and 
dangers, and the positive declaration of Caesar, 
you, sir, are hardy enough to declare and mod¬ 
estly challenge <c all the scholars of Europe 
and America” to prove that the Morini were 
not seated among these interminable wilds, in 
which neither man nor beast would volun¬ 
tarily abide an hour.* 

But, says your reverence, referring to 
Napoleon’s Life of Caesar, c< he is obliged to 
bring the Morini from the Schelde and the 
mouths of the Rhine where they were certainly 
situate, to occupy the whole length of the coast 
of Belgium, and the northeast of France as 
far as Boulogne, f Let us examine this bold as- 


* What has been said in reference to the ancient condition of 
the Maas-Schldic archipelago, let it not mislead the reader. 
We find Roman authorities frequently speaking of “ their harbors, 
porti j 'naval depots, cothone s and arsenals, na^valia upon the 
Rhine and other Gallic and German streams j” but let it be un¬ 
derstood, that what has been said in relation to the state of that 
vast flat applies only to the immediate shore, or a few miles in¬ 
ward 

f Pamph. 4. 


3 




34 


Caesar 


sumption which you have raised, and ascertain 
how far you have sustained the position as¬ 
sumed. 

I will next proceed to discuss the most im¬ 
portant phase of the question at issue, (viz.) 
the real location of the Morini,—the heart, the 
pith and marrow of all which I have, or 
perhaps shall adduce, tending to establish and 
confirm the only position that can be sustained, 
consistent with the evidence adduced. You, sir, 
as will already have been seen, locate that peo¬ 
ple,—the Morini, at the Rhine, Walcheren, 
and Schelde, surelv, not at all these places. * 
The Emperor contends for the old theory, 
and has the concurrence of general and special 
history, and I beg to add you have signally 
failed in your attempt to prove the contrary. 
Nor is the site on which Caesar landed so 
clearly established as it were desirable, but it 
cannot be carried from the coast of Kent until 
the cc Commentaries” of Caesar are regarded as 
a myth, or the discovery of other evidence 
that shall render them dubious, or of no au¬ 
thority. 

But the latter is not probable ; and as the 


* From the Schlde to the Rhine is over seventy miles. The 
word or, is a disjunctive and is equivalent to either . 







Caesar. 


35 

gist ot the question rests altogether on the 
location of the Morini, and as you, sir, “elect 
to stand or fall,” I will endeavor to examine 
the subject, somewhat in extenso; avoiding, 
however, whenever possible, all things not 
pertinent to the matter under our consideration. 

Let us first notice the universality of ancient 
opinion. As to the district from which Caesar 
sailed for Britain, there is no difficulty. He 
expressly names the port, and is probably 
the only person known, except, perhaps, 
Pytheas—who actually crossed the channel. 
Mela, a contemporary of Claudius, remarks, 
Ultimos Gallic arum gentium Morinos nec portu 
quam Gesoriacum vocant quicquam notius habet . * 
“The best known,” this is significant! Florus, 
who lived in the first century, bears the same 
testimony, £hii tertia vigilia Morini solvesset 
a portu , f and the reason assigned is, because 
this district, the Morini, was the most com¬ 
modious for a rendezvous for his army, Ipse 
proficiscitur cum omnibus copiis in Morinos quod 
transjectus inde in Britanniam erat brevissimus . 


*Lib. iij. c. 6. Sena in Britannico mari. Osismicis adversa 
littoribus, Gallici numinis oraculo insignis est. Giles, ij. 41 — 
Gessoriacum nunc de Calcs portu. (Caletensis.) 
f Lib. iij. 19. Giles, 10. 






Caesar. 


3 6 

Pliny, who lived in the first century of the 
Christian era, writes,— Haec (Britannia ) abest a 
Gesoriaco Morinornm gentis lit ore 'proximo trajectu 
quinquaginla mil # that is : This island (Britain) 
—is distant from Gessoriacum, on the coast of 
the Morini, at the spot where the passage 
across is the shortest, fifty miles. The precise 
distance is variously given. Caesar sailed from 
one to the other, names thirty miles, f 

Without aiming at, or expecting an absolute 
settlement of the site of the Morini, which 
can only be proximately done by a judicious 
arrangement of a series of circumstantial 
evidence, which, when brought to bear, will be 
sufficient to establish data little short of dem¬ 
onstration. Wnitaker, in his history of the 
Britons, derives the name from its topograph¬ 
ical position; but it must be recollected that 
the Armorican coast stretched from the Schelde 
to beyond the Loire; therefore, too indefinite for 
local definition. Caesar, on one occasion, says 


* Lib. iv. 30, which is nearly correct, allowing his landing to 
have been at Deal; but Pliny, it is probable, measured to Rutu- 
pia ; which calls for fifty miles. 

f Caesar, be it remembered, does not name the exact port of 
the Morini from which he sailed. In his second voyage he sailed 
from Portus Itins, which indentifies the place. 








Caesar. 


37 


the Armoricans were a people of the Celtica, 
occupying that part of Gaul lying along the 
coast between the Loire and the Siene; but in 
lib . vij. he gives to them a more extended area. 
The elements of the term, Morini, is supposed 
to be from Ar-Mor-ic-i. De Peyster, p. 63, 
says, 44 Carausius was the Sovereigne of Armo¬ 
rica, a Celtic term, by which the Romans knew 
the whole coast of Gaul, whereas, subsequent 
geographers restrict it to Brittany and the 
Gallic shores of the channel. Of the country, 
between the Elb and the Loire, the eastern 
half was shared equally between the Frisii, the 
Batavi and the Menapii; while the western, 
from the Zwine to the Loire, including the 
territory of the Morini, was known as Ar¬ 
morica, or Arena orica —Rractus Aremoricus , on 
p. 125. The same eloquent writer enlarges on 
the etymology of the name, Morini. 4< Accord- 
ing to some etymologists, the term signifies 
the maritime people; others, people living 
where the tide rises and falls, children of the 
sea,” &c. Again, citing Eyndius, Insulae 
Zelandicae cir cams crip tae sunt ex antiquo Rheni — 
aliis placet Mosae et Scaldis—confluente alveis 
ostiis et oceano ; conterminis a Septentrione Batavis , 
ab oriente Menapiis et Nerviis , a meridie Morinis. 




38 


Caesar. 


Eas Insulas sub imperio Menapiorum fuisse iisdem 
autoribus colligi posse dixi: nec enim quis , Mori- 
norum Pagos—unde vox Pays Gallis manavit ultra 
Scaldim sese unquam extendisse facile probavesit. 
If, therefore, Eyndius be correct, the Batavi 
on the Rhine; the Menapii and the Nervii 
possessed all that portion of the archipelago, 
now comprising the Zealandic islands, between 
the Rhine and the Schelde, and that the Morini, 
with their Pagi , were south of the latter river, 
where Caesar places them. This position he 
assumes on other occasions. 

The general opinion is, that the Morini orig¬ 
inally reached from about Dunkirk, or Grave¬ 
lines, southwardly to the port of Boulogne, on 
the estuary of the river Liane, a place, in the 
time of the Romans, of great repute, and east- 
wardly to the Lys, a stream which mingles its 
waters with those of the Schelde, near Ghent; 
but its limits varied occasionally to beyond the 
Lys.* North of the Morini, and southwest of 
the Manapii, along the coast of Flanders, were 
the Grudii, the Levaci, &c., all of whom were 
south of the Menapii; and more recently, 

* “ Southwardly almost as far as the whole tract of land which 
lies in the diocesses of St. Omer and Ypress in Flanders.”— 
Mascou lib. ij., io. 







Caesar . 


39 


north of them were the Toxandri, which Mas- 
cou places north of the Schelde.* 

That Boulogne is the representative of Ges- 
soriacum and Bononia there cannot remain a 
doubt. The learned antiquary, Samuel Gale, 
Esq., tells us that the old name, Gessoriacum, 
was changed for Bononia about the age of 
Constantine the Great; for Eumenius, in his 
panegyric spoken in honor of Constantius 
Chlorus, mentions it twice; first by Gessoriacum 
muros , and afterwards a Gessoriacensi lit tore; but 
speaking of the same place in the panegyric 
to his son Constantine, he calls it Bononcencis 
oppidi littus .f The Pentinger Table is express 
that Gessoriacum and Bononia are the same 
place or port, for there, among the Morini, we 
meet with Gessoriaco quod nunc Bononia. But 
Antonine would seem to render the fact too 
obvious to admit of doubt, inasmuch as he is 
supposed to have accompanied a Roman chief 
in his passage to Britain, and describes what he 
saw.* Arrowsmith, a good authority, ob- 


* An ancient people of the low countries about Breda and 
Gertruydenburg. 

f Archaeologia, vol. i., 204. 

X Antonini Augusti, A 0 320, Itin- y i: “A Gessoriaco de Galliis 
Rhutupis in portu Britanniarum stadia numero, 450.” 





4° 


Caesar. 


serves: The Morini is situated west of the 
Nervii, and nearest of the Gallic tribes to 
Britain, from which they are separated by the 
Gallicum Straits of Dover. The chief town 
was, on the authority of Ptolomy, called Ges- 
soriacum, afterwards Bononia—Boulogne—a 
port and station for ships, whence was the 
usual passage to our island.* Moreover, that 
Gessoriacum is the portus Morinorum Britanni- 
cum of Pliny is evident from its distance from 
the ocean, along a line from the Alps, per Lug- 
dunum ad portum Morinorum Britannicum; and 
Ptolomy, lib. ij ., 8, sec. 3, has Gessoriacumus a 
naval station of the Morini, between Portus 
Itius and the river Labudas or Labulas. But 
Boulogne is south of Itius, and the Labulas 
was the river Schelde. Therefore, Gessoriacum 
could not be north of that stream. Need I, 
sir, say more on this phase of the question ?f 
But further, I will add, we have the unexcep¬ 
tionable testimony of Ammianus Mercellinus, 
(lib. xxvij ., cap. 8,) who lived about A. D. 360. 
Valentinian, on his way from Amiens to 
Treves, learning that the Britons were greatly 

*p> i6 9- 

f See an article on this subject In the Archaeologia, vol. iij., 251, 
where the fact is well sustained in a brief history of the place. 






Caesar . 


4 * 


oppressed by the ravages of the Piets and 
Scots, and fearing the consequences of delay, 
he hastily dispatched Theodosius to the scene 
of difficulty. Having reached the cost of Bou¬ 
logne, Bononiae littus , which is separated from 
the opposite shore by a very narrow strait of 
the sea, he crossed the strait, and arrived at 
Richborough, Rutupia , a very tranquil station 
on the opposite coast. From the same place 
he was followed by the Batavi, the Heruli, the 
Iovian, and the Victorian legions, who, on 
landing, marched direct to London, an ancient 
town, defeated the predatory and straggling 
bands of the enemy, and seized their booty. 
Unde quum consequuti Batavi , venissent et Eruli , 
Ioviiuqe et Vic tores , fidentes viribus numeric egres- 
sus tendensque ad Lundinium vetus oppidum , &c, 
H ere, sir, Bononia is located on the coast of 
Gaul, opposite to Richborough, where the 
strait is very narrow. I think your reverence 
will not be able to twist the evidence of Ammi- 
annus to suit the heresy of the Rhenish theory. 
Again, lib. xx., 1 and 4, Lupicinus, “with a 
force of light-armed troops, in the very depth 
of winter, marched to Bononia, and having 
procured some vessels for the purpose, he 
sailed, with a favorable wind, and reached Ru- 

3* 





4 2 


Caesar. 


tupia, on the opposite coast, whence he marched 
to Londinium to take counsel as to future 
movements.” A 0 . 360. 

Nor must we on^it the testimony of Richard 
of Cirencester, who was unquestionably pos¬ 
sessed of documentary matter which we need. 
In his Diaphragm at a he describes the first Iter 
as beginning at Rutupia, (Richborough, county 
of Kent,) opposite to Gessoriacum, port of 
Bononia, being the most commodious passage 
to Britain, distant 450 stadia, or, according to 
others, 46 miles. Here, sir, is an involuntary 
admission that places Gessoriacum on the 
channel. 

But you, sir, in an especial manner, direct 
attention to the testimony of Camden, in rela¬ 
tion to the Pharos being in the vicinity of the 
Rh ine. Dion Cassius, lib. lx. 21, states that 
the Roman Senate voted that a triumphal arch 
should be erected, in honor of Claudius, on 
the identical spot from which he sailed to 
Britain. If this be correct, it was erected at 
Boulogne, or was intended so to be. Danville 
follows some other writers in supposing the 
Pharos which Caligula reared on the Gallic 
shore when he menaced Britain, was reared near 
Boulogne. In the map of Ortelius, these 




Caesar . 


43 


towns—for there were two—are placed at Bou¬ 
logne. We have likewise the testimony of 
Bucherius,* who canvasses the question at some 
length and inferentially proves that Gessoria- 
cum and Bononia are identical, and not the 
Britten Hans visible at low water near Cat- 
wyke.f 

The great Roman roads which intersected 
each other throughout all Gaul, afforded vast 
advantages to the belligerent movements of 
Caesar. Agrippa, we are told by Strabo, lib. 
iv y 6, constructed four chief sea-routes, uniting 
Lyons with the western coast of Gaul, viz.: 
One over the Cevennes to the Santones, at 
the mouth of the Garonne, and into the Aqui- 
tania, a second to the Rhine; a third to the 


* Lib. iv., io, sec. 13: “ Extat adhuc, ad Bononiam nostram, 
in litore Morinorum na turns, in colis hodie dicta, la Tour 
d’ordre, bis aut ter, a me annis Christi, 1616 et 1624, cum stu- 
pore visa., discussaque, opus cum aliis ejus generis in Belgio nos¬ 
tro Galiisque comparatum, plane, Romanum, vetustate miran- 
dum. Quod non solum probant oculi, sensusque nostri 5 sed et 
Eginhardus vitae Caroli M, annaliumque scriptor ; cum de eodem 
Carolo ad A. C. 811 ; ita loquitur; Carolus ipse, propter classem, 
quam anno superiore impeiaverat, videndum, ad Bononiam, Gal- 
licam civitatem maritimam accessit.” 

f See, also, C. Julii Caeseris quae extant , by Scaliger Elvizar ed. 
Amsterdam, 1661, who locates the Morini on the channel—p. 
91, and map. 






44 


Caesar 


ocean, through the country of the Bellovaci, 
and the Ambiani, the termination of which 
would be at Bononia, and a fourth into Nar- 
bonsis and the Massaliot coast. There was 
also a branch started from Bagacum Bavay , the 
capital town of the Nervii, passed Pons Scal- 
dis, Escant pont , Turnacum, ‘ Tournay , Virvia- 
cum, JVarwic , Castellum, Montcassel , Tarvenna, 
Eherouanne , and thence to Gessoriacum, Bou¬ 
logne. Taken as a base, the one which connects 
Bononia with Tongres, which here divided 
into two routes. One of these terminated on 
the Rhine, at Bonn, the other reached Cleves, 
at Tongres, one of the oldest towns in Belgic- 
Gaul, formerly Bungrum oppidum , where have 
been found parts of a paved road leading to 
Paris, pieces of which were lately observable. 
Many Roman coins and other relics are found 
in and about the city.* But the great centre 
of the eight diverging Belgo-Gallic causeways 
was at Bavay, the capital town of the Nervii, 
on the Sabis. A portion of this route was 
travelled by Caesar in his campaign in the year 
699, of Rome, which offers a satisfactory solu¬ 
tion of the otherwise inexplicable passage of 

*See an old work, in six quarto vols., vol. i, 765 ; the maps, 
perhaps, by Moll. 








Caesar . 


45 


Florus, who writes, Bonnam et Gessoriacum pon- 
tibus junxit. Literally, Drussus joined by 
bridges Gessoriacum and Bonn, distant from 
each other a great number of miles, importing, 
as Napoleon justly thinks, he connected these 
two distant places by building bridges over the 
many intervening streams, some of which were, 
perhaps, both broad and deep; no other ver¬ 
sion is intelligible.* In some of the ancient 
maps of Gaul we find one bridge over the 
Maas and one over the Schelde, above Turna- 
cum, a little west of Bavay, (Bagacum.) 
“LugdunumC says Long, “was, in fact, the cen¬ 
tre of Gaul—a kind of acropolis. The four 
great routes ran from the country of the Mo- 
rini, from the Siene, from the Loire, and from 
the Garonne.”f Thus, reverend .sir, you 
cannot fail to see that nothing here conspires 
to aid the idea that the Morini was located 
north of the Schelde. 

Moreover, after his return from Britain, win¬ 
ter being at hand, Caesar proceeded to appor¬ 
tion his army and quarter it among the States. 


* Admitting that Gessoriacum was at the mouths of the Rhine, 
as you persistently advocate, the bridges were indeed long ones. 
Bonn is distant from the mouths of the Rhine 200 to 250 miles, 
f Smith’s Diet., vol. i, p. 963. 




46 


Caesar. 


Three legions out of eight were sent to the 
Belffic division: one he sent into the district 

O 1 

of the Morini, to Saint Pol, under the care of 
C. Fabius, not far from the confines of the 
Atrebates: a second, under the command of O. 

7 J <V 

Cicero, among the Nervii, on the great mili¬ 
tary via which led from the Luxovi—a tribe 
south of the Siene—through Samarobriva, 
(Amiens,) the headquarters of Caesar, at Char- 
leroy; a third at the Essuvii, under the con¬ 
trol of L. Roscius.* The military way just 
noticed, connect three important stations, viz., 
the headquarters of Caesar, the camp of Cicero, 
and that of Sabianus at Tongres, Aduatuca. 
Perhaps, sir, it may not be out of place if we 
here notice, that for the valuable services ren¬ 
dered to Caesar by Comius, Prince of the 
Atrebates, the taxes were remitted, and the 
enviable government of the Morini was added 
to the bounty of his munificence—a gift so 
remote and so difficult of access, it must be 
supposed that Comius would not care to accept 
or Caesar to offer. I present this to your con¬ 
sideration as a link in the chain of evidence, 
which, with other circumstantial testimony, 


* Life of Caesar, vol. ii., p, 225, map 14. 









Caesar. 


47 


will, I trust, eventuate in turning your atten¬ 
tion to the facts already stated, and to be here¬ 
after enunciated, and impartially try how far 
and in what degree they conform to the require¬ 
ments of the Commentaries, if carried north of 
the Schelde to the Rhine. 

But recollect, says your reverence, “Caesar’s 
campaigne was on the Rhine.” All the worse 
as having crossed that river, and destroyed the 
bridge, his army and himself were put in a 
position which would debar their reaching the 
Morini at the mouths of the Rhine, or any 
other location between that river and the 
Schelde. Admitting that the bridge was near 
the confluence of the Moselle with the Rhine, 
Caesar would be over two hundred miles from 
the mouth of the latter stream, to reach which 
he would have to brave the perils and obstacles 
before enumerated, and all the appalling dan¬ 
gers of an enemy insulted, and determined on 
revenge; but in assuming the idea that the 
Morini occupied their reputed location on the 
channel, fewer obstructions would intervene, 
and the distance not greater. After travelling 
a space of seventy or eighty miles he would 
arrive at that branch of the military way which 
connected Bonn with Tongres, near the winter 



4 8 


Caesar. 


quarters of Sabinus, and by that means obtain 
a good and practicable route. 

And moreover, there is another aspect of the 
affair which would seem to demand attention. 
Caesar was on the north bank of the Rhine ; 
had broken down the bridge to secure his rear 
against any hostile attack from that quarter. 
Still bent on his threatened invasion of Britain, 
and the severity of a northern winter close at 
hand, he would feel solicitous to facilitate his 
object by an increase of energy and activity. 
Ignorant of the British coasts, and persuaded 
that the merchants of Gaul could resolve his 
doubts, he hastily summoned them ; they met 
and disappointed him. Learning probably the 
object of his inquiry the merchants patriotically 
withheld all they knew. Frustrated and baffled 
by the supposed duplicity of the merchants, 
Caesar determined to send one of his generals 
to inspect the coast of Britain. Volusenus was 
selected, and bidden to take a ship and view 
the coasts and harbors, and report at head¬ 
quarters soon as possible, while himself and 
army followed him to the Morini. On his 
arrival thither, “he ordered ships from all 
parts of the neighboring countries, and the 
fleets which the preceding summer he had built 




Caesar. 


49 


for the war with the Veneti, to assemble at this 
place.* At the expiration of five days Volu- 
senus returned, and communicated to Caesar 
all that he had learned.f 

Now sir, is not this plain and unambiguous 
narrative sufficiently clear to any mind, unfet¬ 
tered by a distorted view, point out the precise 
location of the Morini, to be on the chan¬ 
nel. Where are the neighboring countries 
of the Morini” which the commentaries call 
for ? certainly not in the vicinity of the mouths 
of the Rhine, or the fore-shore of Walcheren ; 
inasmuch as Caesar had no armies in that part 
of Gaul, nor would the navy, which he had built 
to aid in subduing an enemy located in Brittany, 
not far from the estuary of the Loire, be placed 
at the mouths of the Rhine and at the mercy of 
the enemy. Such blunders Caesar was not in 
the habit of committing. 


* Jubet naves convenire hue undique ex finitimis regionibus, 
et classem quam ad Veneticura bellum superiore aestate. lib. iv., 
21. 

f The Britains, who were in alliance with the Vannes, on 
learning that Caesar was about to attack the latter, built a large 
navy consisting of two hundred aud twenty sail of ships, well 
manned and well furnished with ammunition, provisions, &c. 
These ships were pressed into service of Caesar, bluet's Com. 
cap. xxxajii., 2. 




5° 


Caesar. 


Again, after the victory which Ambrorix 
obtained over the Romans, he, taking advan¬ 
tage of circumstances, marched into the Canton 
of the Nervii, a powerful nation adjoining the 
Morini, and urged on them the necessity of 
throwing off the intolerable yoke of Roman 
oppression, and aid in the enterprise of resuming 
their independence. Willing to again be free, 
the Nervian authorities forthwith dispatched 
messengers to the Centrones, Grudii, Levacii, 
Pleumosii and Geiduni, subjects of the Nervii, 
requiring them to combat in their defence, 
(v. 38, 39.) Now sir, who were the Nervii, 
and where dwelt they ? On this phase of the 
case there is some difficulty. D’Anville says 
their capital town was Bagacum , Bavay. So 
also Ptolmy, having in subjection the Cantons 
of the Tournavi, Gorduni, Grudii, &c. On 
the south their neighbors were the Ambiani, 
(ij., 15,) and the Notitia Imperii , regards them as 
a continuation of the Armoricanus Hr actus. 
Citing a later authority, he uses this significant 
expression, Nervici lit tores tr actus A On this 


* Arrowsmith, 169. Through their territory ran Scaldis flu 
Schelde or Escaut. The Ner^ianus Eractus , or coast of the 
Nervii. Zealand has suffered much from the inroads of the sea. 
It was inhabited by the smaller tribes 3 the Grudii near Groede , 






Caesar. 


5 1 


coast was a port called Portus Aepatiaci; but in 
what particular part is not satisfactorily ascer¬ 
tained.* * The Notitia reports it as being 
guarded by Nervian troops.f Ptolmy, (lib. ij., 
9, 3,) calls this port “a river of Gaul,” locateci 
between Gessoriacum and the Maas. In sec¬ 
tion 9, after fixing the position of the Morini, 
whose two chief towns were Gessoriacum and 
Taruanna, he adds: Then after the Tabullus 
are Pungri. All these indications seem to show 
that the Tabullas or Tabula is the Schelde, 
which would be correctly placed between the 
“ Morini and the Tungri,” Long. In the map 
accompanying the description of Gallica, these 
small tribes are located on the channel.J With 
the Nervii the Romans, as before intimated, 
had a bloody battle, when the old men, women, 

the Gorduni, Pleumosii, the Levacii, about Lie-ua river and the 
Centrones. 

* Valoris regarded this port and Boulogne identical. It is 
probable that both it and the Meldi were in the vicinage of 
Calais, and that at Meldi, which would be in the Morini, a part 
of the fleet was built. This is an error; the Meldi were never 
any part of the Morini. 

f Smith’s Diet. vol. ij., 1082. (In an old geo. vol. i., 950, 
M. B. 146,) for the account of Cluverius, see the work. 

J Ortelius lived 1550, was a Flemish geographer of distin¬ 
guished note. Stukeley says “the map properly places the 
northern districts,” p. 21. See also Scaligers’ map, &c. 







5 2 


Caesar. 


and children of the former, were removed for 
safety to the estuaries and marshes on the 
coast.* 

In corroboration of the foregoing remarks, I 
beg your especial attention ; which, if admitted 
to be true, will materially add to the permanent 
establishment of the position of the channel 
hypothesis. On p. 9, pamphlet, you write, 
<£ it was here, at the mouths of the Rhine; on 
the shores of the ocean that he, Caligula, 
gathered up shells as spoils of Britain ; then 
Claudius no doubt, followed the same course, 
and sailed from the same port as Plautius his 
pioneer, and, as we have already noted he sailed 
from east to west.” Now, sir, I would ask you 
whether Plautius could reach Britain by any 
other course. You, sir, need not be reminded 
that Britain lay west of Gaul. I am not aware 
that you have any authority to fix the site of 
the embarkation of Plautius at any particular 
point, except what may be gathered from Dion 


* “ The people, most of them, sought their safety in the thickest 
of the Arduennian forest, and among the marshes. Those who 
dwelt near the sea coast, fled to the neighboring isles, which 
wjre raised by the tides and surges of the sea 5 and many took 
refuge wherever their fears first directed them ; since any event 
was thought more supportable than to fall into the hands of the 
Romans.” . Mascou's Anc. Germ. Vol. lib., ii. 1 7, 24/ 




Caesar. 


53 


Cassius, who would seem to intimate that 
Plautius did land in Kent.* Now, sir, it is not 
disputed that Claudius sailed from Ostia, and 
was twice in danger of being drowned by a 
violent gust near Liguria and the Stochades, off 
the cost of Narboneusis in Gaul, and probably 
about fifty miles from Marseillis, where he 
made land; and thence by land and water he 
reached Gessoriacum, afterwards Bononia, and 
then crossed the straits;f After having reached 
the coast of Kent he waited on the banks of 
the Thames, until he was joined by Plautius. 
He then crossed that river, attacked the enemy, 
defeated him ; marched to the capital town of 
Cynobelin, took it, and after the requisite 
arrangements with the British, he speedily 
recrossed the river, and after a stay in Britain 


* Giles’ Briton, 77. Plautius commenced the campaign in 
Britain with four legions, to which were added a body of German 
and Batavian calvary. 

f Smith’s Diet. Geog. Vol., i. 968. Dion Cass. “ partim 
terra partim mari facto, ad Oceanum, venit transmisitque in 
Britanniam et ad copias, ad Tamesin se expectantes perrexit.” 
Some suppose that there is a mistake in the name of the river, and 
imagine it to have been the Medway; but this notion cannot be 
sustained. Caesar could not be so ignorant, as to be mistaken 
in the name of so celebrated a stream. Besides the distance from 
the sea, is positive evidence to the contrary : the Medway being 
only thirty miles distant. 




54 


Caesar. 


of sixteen days, he recrossed the straits in 
safety.* 

Now, if there be any truth in the narrative 
of Dion Cass. Seutonius, &c., the query 
whether Caesar crossed the channel is set at 
rest. For would it not be preposterous and 
almost criminally absurd to deny a fact so 
obviously plain and intelligible. Claudius 
landed on the south side of the Thames, and 
there waited for Plautius to join him ; he soon 
became acquainted with the location of the 
British forces on the north bank of the river 
and in the dominions of the Trinobantes. He 
therefore crossed it, attacked the enemy, con¬ 
quered him, and marched to the capital town of 
Cynobellin ; Camaiodunum .f Subdued it, and 
reduced to subjection much of that part of the 
Trinobantes; and after conferring the chief 
command as before on Plautius, he himself 
hurried off to Rome. On learning what 
Claudius had achieved, the Senate of Rome 
accorded him a triumph; honored him with a 
vote of annual games, a triumphal arch in the 
city and another in Gaul, whence he had em- 


* Suetonius, art., Tib. Claudius, 17. 

f It is not known whether Malden or Colchester represents 
this most ancient of Roman settlements. 







Caesar . 


55 


barked for Britain.* In accomplishing these 
exploits, he spent only sixteen days. 

Under any circumstance or any phase of the 
invasion of Britain by Claudius, the brief time 
he spent in effecting his object would be greatly 
insufficient to allow him to perform the deeds 
which are ascribed to him by any other route 
than across the channel to the shores of Kent. 
This fact, I presume to think, totally discards 
the mistaken idea that Gessoriacum was situate 
at the mouth of the Rhine, between which and 
the former no other fit position then existed. 
They were distant from each other 160 miles. 
But you demand, “Where was Gessoriacum?” 
You answer your own interrogatory in your 
usual confident manner, “Clearly, in the neigh¬ 
borhood of the Rhine.” This, sir, is clearly an 
error. 

Again, as an especial auxiliary, you ask at¬ 
tention to the exploits of Carausius before Ges¬ 
soriacum, intimating thereby that he, being a 
Menapian, that celebrated port, the Morini, 
must have been within its borders. “ Remem- 


* Amongst the Romans, a triumph was esteemed as the 
highest pitch of military glory, and was permitted only on the 
most brilliant achievements. 





5 6 


Caesar. 


ber,” say you, “he was a Menapian.” # But 
wherefore do you emphasize such trifles, and 
what are the facts of the case? The most we 
know of that person is, that he was a savage 
freebooter, whose place of birth and paternity 
are alike unknown and uncared tor. “Constan¬ 
tins,” you assert, “besieges Carausius in the 
harbor of Boulogne, where the sea, by altern¬ 
ating tides, is brought up to the very gates; he 
makes it inaccessible to their ships by piles and 
stones, and yet Carausius is able, by another 
exit, to carry his fleet into Britain.”* “How,” 
continue you, “in any way does or ever could 
Boulogne answer to these descriptions?” 
What alterations may have been wrought in 
the estuary of the Laine, by the joint effects of 
tide and flood, in the course of two thousand 
years is beyond my ken ; but we have ample 
evidence at hand to assure-us that in all large 
valleys immense and almost incredible changes 
have been effected, and we have sufficient testi- 

* Menapia is a place of dubious identity, and whether born in 
Ireland, Wales, or Belgium, is not known ; but the chief rendez¬ 
vous of his piratical fleet was at Gessoriacum, whence, on every 
favorable opportunity, he emerged to exercise his vile pursuits, 
and prey on peaceful commerce. That he was valiant, strategi¬ 
cal, and courageous will not be doubted 5 and that he was equally 
tyrannous is as certain. 





Caesar . 


57 


mony to warrant us in supposing that the vale 
of the Laine is not an exception to the general 
law of currents. “Where the tides enter a 
river’s mouth, and periodically combat the 
freshes, these are backed to certain distances, 
their motion is nearly destroyed for a time, 
and the sediment, which was only suspended by 
the agitation of the water, is dropped in the in¬ 
terval of quiescence. The stronger the current 
from the land, the further towards the open sea 
are its sediments carried, so that in many cases 
large quantities pass beyond the estuaries, and 
float away on the heavier salt water, even to 
hundreds of miles from the coasts.” “Thus it 
happens that many towns, to which the tides 
reached in the days of Roman sway, as at Ro¬ 
chester, Norwich, York, &c., are now wholly 
or partially deserted by it, and large beds of 
marsh land occupy the sites of ancient tide- 
lakes. It is, however, true that the tide waters 
themselves have contributed some part of the 
sediment which forms the wide marsh lands by 
the Thames and the Medway, the enormous 
breadths of fenland in Lincolnshire and Cam- 
bridshire, and the warp or silt lands on the 
Trent, the Aire, Ouse, and Derwent.”* The 

* Phillip’s Geology, vol. ij., p. 5. 

4 


I 








58 


Caesar. 


like parity of reasoning will apply to most of 
the rivers which flow through the vast plain 
lying between the Rhine and the Schelde, a 
fact which should educe care and circumspec¬ 
tion in our speculations on questions of that 
character. 

In his history of the ancient Britons, Dr. 
Giles* gives us a very different account of this 
feat, founded on the panegyric of Eumenius on 
Constantius. His version of the transaction 
is, that Carausius, finding himself overmatched 
on land, fled to the fleet, then riding in the 
stream af the Laine, for safety, and escaped to 
Britain before the harbor was closed up. 

General De Peyster, in his elaborate history 
of Carausius, p. 77, admits that his hero was 
driven for shelter into the harbor of Boulogne, 
“where Constantius was completing that stu¬ 
pendous mole, which was soon to intercept all 
hopes of relief, and end the career of Carausius 
by his capture in the beleagured city, or com¬ 
pel him to take refuge in his inland sovereignty 
and upon the deck of his Admiral’s galley, 
navis prcetoria. At the same time the Caesar 
was urging on Maximian to complete his naval 


* Vol. i., p. 265. 




Caesar. 


59 


armament, without which, however victorious 
on land, each hour brought new and greater 
perils to the empire from the sea.” The gal¬ 
lant General then proceeds, in a flowing and 
dramatic style, to depict his wonderful delivery 
by the interposition of a mighty storm, <c which 
assailed the waters of the boisterous channel— 
ever furious—as if the wing of the destroying 
angel beat upon the very surface of its deeps, 
burst upon the Armorican coast. To the sea¬ 
born Hollander, the fury of the tempest had 
been his nursing-mother; the breath of the gale 
had only sped him on to fame and power, and 
the foam-crested waves, phosphorescent in their 
ire, had been the coursers he had ridden in his 
race for the Augustan prize.” The pelting of 
this pitiless storm raised a furious commo¬ 
tion in the restless channel, which fathomed 
its profoundest depths, and shook the mole to 
its foundation; a small breach was created, 
and himself and a few faithful followers took 
advantage of the chasm, and reached Britain 
in safety. But his usurpation of the throne of 
Britain continued only about seven years, being 
killed by Alectus, himself also an usurper. At 
this period piracy was not esteemed so hideously 
offensive as at a later era. 



6 o 


Caesar. 


Whatever may have been the condition of 
the Menapii in the age of Caesar, the attentive 
reader of the Commentaries, &c., cannot have 
failed to discover that important changes and 
interesting vicissitudes have chequered the his¬ 
tory of this people; and whether these changes 
were effected by the fortune of war or unskil¬ 
ful diplomacy, is, I presume, unknown. The 
usual association of the Morini with the Men¬ 
apii would seem rather to apply to their topo¬ 
graphical peculiarities than to their geograph¬ 
ical position. In an historical and ethnological 
work, recently published by Gen. De Peyster, 
he plausibly argues that the Menapians of 
Caesar were the actual progenitors of the inhab¬ 
itants of the Netherlands and Holland, alter¬ 
nating between the Schelde and the Rhine. 
Several other tribes or clans are “reported to 
have been received as emigrants, or adopted as 
members of this confederacy.” Thus the Gu- 
gerni are said to have been settled by Tiberius, 
B. C. 8, and the Ubii and the Sicambe by 
Agrippa, B. C. 38, in the Rhenish part of this 
district. At a more early period, the Usipetes 
and Tenchtheri, their neighbors beyond the 
Rhine, celebrated for their excellent cavalry, 
forcibly possessed themselves of a portion of 




Caesar. 


61 


their Gallic dominion.* And at a later period, 
the Toxandri occupied a part north of the 
Schelde, which had belonged to the Menapii. 
“1 his was the home proper of the Vaderland of 
the Menapii.” “Upon the second or central 
branch, the Romans had a grand naval depot, 
at Leyden, Lugdunum Batavorum , the only one 
upon the North Sea, with the exception of 
Boulogne.” “Pontanus is the only modern 
writer who maps out the ancient Nether¬ 
lands according to the description of Strabo.”f 
Cellarius leaves the reader in great doubt as to 
the extent of the Netherlands; Raimond Marli- 
anus confines the Menapii to Juliers, Guelders, 
and Cleves; Littleton, to Brabant and Cleves; 
Ortelius to Brabant and Flanders, (west.) The 
industry and talent of the learned and astute 
General De Peyster have enabled him to collect 
much useful matter, which, if well arranged and 
nicely concentrated, would do much towards 
settling the difficulties involved in the question 
relating to the bounds of the Menapii, as well, 

* Menapii, 23, and Carau., 147. 

f Lib. iv., c. 3-5 : “ Close to the Menapii, and near to the sea, 
are the Morini, the Bellovaci, the Ambiani, the Suessiones, and 
the Caleti, as far as the outlet of the river Siene.” Here is a reg¬ 
ular and conterminous location of five principal Armorican 
States, extending north to about Dunkirk. 




62 


Caesar. 


also, as the site of the Morini. With respect 
to the latter, none need be entertained. The 
authorities which he cites are chiefly those 
whose ample means for acquiring the best evi¬ 
dence on the subject, and of arranging them in 
the most luminous manner, demand an im¬ 
plicit faith in their testimony, and unfaltering 
acquiescence in their decisions. 

Caesar’s narrative, as is supposed, makes the 
Morini conterminous with the Menapii on the 
shore; but this is, I believe, an error, as has 
been already shown. In an old map of Gallia 
\Pransalpina , the Nervii are placed between the 
Morini and the Menapii, and through which 
ran the Roman causeway from Bagacum , Pons 
Schaldis , Purnacum , to Castellum Morinorum , 
Panama, and Gessoriacum , and thus intervenes 
between the Morini and the Menapii, north¬ 
west of the Grudii, &c. Moreover, the very 
fact of the recognition of the Toxandri by 
Pliny shows, and efficiently proves, that this 
people, being made up of different communi¬ 
ties of men, ultimately incorporated the Grudii, 
&c., and thus extinguished both their names and 
nationality, which will account for their brief 
existence as a nation. 

The Toxandri is recognized as forming a 




Caesar . 


6 3 


tribe within the confines of Belgic Gaul, a peo¬ 
ple not known or not mentioned by either 
Caesar or Strabo; but Pliny, who is supposed 
to be the first who brought them into notice,* 
says of them: “Beginning at the Schelde, the 
parts beyond are inhabited by the Toxandri, 
who are divided into various people, with many 
names, after whom came the Menapii, the 
Morini, the Oromarsaci, who are adjacent to 
the burgh which is called Gessoriacum.”j' The 
difficulties here appear to rest on the adj. extera , 
which to me seems sufficiently intelligible to 
mark the location of this community. D’An- 
ville, with some others, plausibly regard their 
limits to be confined to the northeast side of 
the Schelde; and their territory, at a more 
earlier period, a portion of that of the 
Menapii. Cluverius fixes their boundaries, 
thus: On the north the old channel of the 
Maas, by which they were separated from the 
Batavi; and on the east and south, the rivers 
and banks of the sea. Ammianus (xvij. 8) 
relates that in the consulship of Datianus 


* Lib iv , 31. 

f A Son!Ji incolunt extera Toxandri pluribus nominibus, de- 
inde Mena,, i, Morini, Oromarsaci juncti pago qui Gessoriacus 
vocatur.— biu. 





64 


Caesar. 


and Cerealis, Julian undertook an expedition 
against the Salian Franks, who had formerly 
settled near the Toxandri.* Mascou makes 
them to occupy the entire coast, £< between the 
Maas and the Schelde,” and southwest of the 
Menapii. Those geographers supposed to be 
the most competent judges, place them in the 
Netherlands, now represented by the Tessend- 
erloo, north of a branch of the Schelde ; while 
Ukirk, after examining the conflicting opinions, 
places them in the vicinity of Ghent or Bruges, 
south of the Schelde. 

A satisfactory location of the Toxandri would 
greatly assist us in determining the site of 
other contemporaneous districts ; but it is to 
be feared such a desideratum is more to be 
wished than probable. The difficulties which 
the lapse of time, and paucity 'of historical 
detail, have so obscured this subject; as seems 
almost to discourage inquiry. Is it not prob- 


* Now, his idea was that the Toxandri were seated in Belgium, 
on the Schelde. Younge’s version is, Julian having made the 
necessary preparations, he marched against the Franks, i. e., 
against that tribe of them called Salii, who, some time before, 
had ventured with great boldness to fix their habitations on the 
Roman soil near Toxandria. Note by Petau , placed in the 
neighborhood of Tongres to the conflux of the Vahal and the 
Rhine. 





Caesar . 


65 


able, sir, as just intimated, that “ the many 
people with many names,” of Pliny, weie those 
of the several States seated on the western coast 
of Gaul, who, in Caesar’s age, were subjects and 
neighbors of the Nervii, and the same whom 
Ambiorix called into service to aid in throwing 
off the yoke of Roman bondage? The veil of 
obscurity which dwells over this tribe, has 
induced De Peyster to doubt whether Pliny 
has not committed some mistake. 

The almost total obscurity into which the 
Grudii, &c., have fallen, is sufficient to induce 
a supposition, that nothing less than such an 
event could so completely annihilate almost 
every vestige of their existence. 

On the sixteenth page of the “ Reprint,” you 
have had the misfortune to meet with a work, 
entitled, “A memoir of Theronane, the ancient 
capital of the Morini.” I say unfortunate, 
because it tends directly and decidedly to 
strengthen and confirm the position which the 
advocates of the channel theory have chiefly, 
if not altogether contended for; and in antago¬ 
nism to the schism you have incautiously 
broached. No person feeling any interest in 
this issue but what will, at one .glance, see the 

absolute necessity of acquiescing in all that has 

4 * 





66 


Caesar. 


been offered in its support, can, I am persuaded, 
ignore the fact that the Morini were limited 
northwardly, somewhere in French or west 
Flanders, latterly an adjunct of the Netherlands, 
and now a member of the French Republic.* 

In the sixth century, Theronane was one of 
the seventeen chief towns named in Dewez’s 
cc Flistorie generale de la Bilgique depuies la 
conqueste de Caesar as were also the cities, 
Turnacum and Castellum Morinorum , always 
esteemed as belonging to the Morini. In this 
connection I would wish it to be understood, 
that throughout this review I have invariably 
regarded the northern part of the Morini to 
have comprised a large portion, if not the 
greater part of Flanders, and more especially so, 
if the former be allowed to reach the river 

9 

Schelde, as is maintained by the Emperor of 
France, f 

In an old work in quarto, published in the 
sixteenth century, p. 932, Flanders is thus 

* Terouane, 7 "oruana, or Civitas Morinorum , was formerly 
the capital of the Morini, a people of Gallica, in Caesar’s time." 
Hist. Netherlands, p. 943. 

f Mr. Halbertsma observes, that the name of Holland, as ap¬ 
plied to the Netherlands, is not heard of before the eleventh 
century, 1064. Bods'worth’s “Origin of the English, Germanic and 
Scandinavian languages ,” p. 91. 


\ 





Caesar . 


67 


described, viz.: “Flanders, in after ages, was 
divided into Flemish or Teutonick, French or 
Walloon and Imperial Flanders. The former 
was so called because of their language. Char¬ 
lemagne planted hither four thousand Saxons. 
This is the richest and most populous part; it 
lies between the Schelde and the Lys, the Aa 
and the ocean; Walloon-Flanders, so called 
because they spoke French, is divided from 
the other by the Lys and reaches to the frontiers 
of France; Tournay and Doway were its chief 
towns.” This opinion is supported by a 
learned descendant of Holland paternity. 
“ Below Boulogne we find ourselves in the 
country of the Morini, which extends thence 
immediately along the channel to the Zwin, or 
present boundary of Zealand.” “ Their territory 
answers to what we recognize as the Depart¬ 
ment of the Pas de Calais in France, and west 
Flanders in Belgium.” De Peyster, 97. There¬ 
fore, all that has been, or all that can be said 
by “ The Brut,” is not one step in the direc¬ 
tion of the Norfolk theory. 

If the Morini never occupied the location 
usually assigned to them, by whom or by what 
tribe was that part of the Armorican coast in¬ 
habited ? Certainly it would not continue a 



68 


Caesar. 


barren waste, unoccupied and desolate. This 
you will not admit, but where is your remedy ? 
From Boulogne to Dunkirk is about thirty- 
five miles ; and from the channel to the Lys or 
east of it, is about thirty, which, as far as 
ancient topographical history is concerned, 
would be a complete blank. 

On the perusal of your bold and extravagant 
pamphlet I soon discovered that your heresy 
was based chiefly on the authority of Strabo, 
which, being in antagonism with much that I 
had been taught in early life, I was induced to 
again turn my attention to the pages of that 
profound and deservedly celebrated geographer, 
and speedily learned that, like some other an¬ 
cient cosmologists, his description of Britain is 
very faulty and unreliable ; therefore, sir, you 
need not complain of unfairness and dishonesty 
in trying to explain away such statements as 
you again repeat and reiterate in your Reprint. 
To persist in error, is certainly less excusable 
than in its committal; and, if I am not greatly 
mistaken, you are ingenuous enough to retract 
any misstatement which you may have inadver¬ 
tently made. 

Under this persuasion, you will not deem it 
amiss, if I solicit your attention to a few points, 




Caesar. 


69 


in which you may have, perhaps, presumed too 
much on the confidence of your readers by such 
assumptions. On p. 18, in your Reprint, you, 
sir, declare “I have given chapter and verse 
for my quotations ; I have not needed to twist 
or explain away any one statement I have met 
with in Caesar, or other ancient writers ” I am 
at a loss, sir, to discover what you would have 
us to understand by the term quotation . To 
quote—if I have a full conception of its import, 
—is to use the words of another as evidence, 
or to illustrate a position assumed. The terms 
cite and quote are synonymously used. Of this 
same class of words, refer is frequently called 
into requisition, as an authority. Now, sir, 
the first and last of these references you fre¬ 
quently use, without naming either chapter, 
verse or page, and that, too, on almost every 
occasion through your pamphlets. In your 
Appendix, p. 30, you say, “the Commentaries 
mention the distance as being 30 miles—from 
Gaul to Britain. This we know to be wrong, 
as 30 miles is not the shortest, brevissimum 
passage across the channel. Every student of 
history well knows how names and numbers 
are altered, both in sacred and secular history, 
as the transcriber’s will or fancy leads him. 





7 ° 


Caesar . 


Caesar, no doubt, wrote Lxxx, but when the 
channel theory was broached, the transcribers, 
knowing that could not be, struck out the L, 
and left the xxx. Here, sir, the reader will, 
with me, think that the twist is a pretty tight 
one, and, I believe, unauthorized. But you, 
sir, say the alteration is known to be a fact; 
now this, we know , is a serious charge, and for 
the sake of truth, the fact ought to be put on 
record in the page of history, so that we may 
no longer rest subject to such a blunder, or 
something worse. 

You will please pardon this brief digression. 
It will not be forgotten, that in the writer’s crit¬ 
icisms on your pamphlet, he adverted briefly to 
the errors and discrepancies of some of the old 
geographers, especially to those of Strabo, and 
hinted that it was doubtful whether he saw 
what he ventures to describe. This opinion is 
endorsed by Major Rennell, in his geographical 
system of Herodotus: <c But this system did 
not pretend to enter minutely into his plan, so 
as to lead him to say much about Western 
Europe. It may indeed be suspected that 
Ireland was not known to the Greeks, nor was 
it known to Polybius ; Strabo knew of the 
existence of both, but the true form of neither; 





Caesar. 


7 l 


and in the position of Ireland he erred so much 
as to place it north of Britain, and at such a 
distance from it as to occupy, nearly, the situ¬ 
ation of the island of Faro.* He supposes it 
to be very large, but by placing it so wide of 
its true position, it may be justly doubted 
whether the Romans ever visited it. 

Strabo supposed that the Pyreneen range of 
mountains ran in a direction parallel to the 
Rhine, therefore from north to south, instead 
of from east to west The Rhine and the Siene 
embrace within their territories a certain extent 
of country, which, however, is not consider¬ 
able; they both flow from east to west; Britain 
lies opposite to them, but nearest to the Rhine, 
from which you may see Kent, which is the 
most eastwardly part of the island; the Seine 
is a little further ; it was here that Julius Caesar 
established a dock-yard, when he sailed to 
Britain.f Describing Spain, Iberia , he says, 


* Smith’s Diet, geog., 949. 

f Strabo lib. iv., e. 3. In ancient times it was usual to map out 
a country after the form of some imaginary object in nature; 
hence Spain is compared to a hide spread out, and hence arose the 
greatest of all errors into which Strabo fell, for Gaul is supposed 
to have had on the ocean only one coast, which is that looking to 
the north, and everywhere opposite to Britain. Strabo treats 
with derision the report of Pytheas that the Calbium pronu**- 





72 


Caesar. 


“ East of this is Keltica, which extends as far 
as the Rhine - . Its northern side is washed by 
the entire of the British channel, for this island 
lies opposite, and parallel to it throughout, 
extending as much as 5,000 stadia, or 625 miles 
in length; its eastern side is bounded by the 
river Rhine, whose stream runs parallel with 
the Pyrenees.”* * Again: <£ The distance from 
the rivers of Keltica to Britain is 320 stadia, 
or 40 miles ; for departing in the evening with 
ebb tide, you will arrive on the morrow, about 
the eighth hour.”f Now, sir, to what rivers 
does Strabo allude ? certainly not to any in the 
vicinity of the Rhine, which lies 125 or 130 
miles from the Norfolk coast, and still further 
from Kent, whereas, allowing the Morini to 
have been seated on the channel, the distance is 
not so objectionable; but the length of time it 
took Caesar to reach Britain from any river 
whose embouchure was in the channel, was oc- 


torium , the extreme point of Britany, looking to the west, and 
he represents vessels as sailing to Britain as readily from the 
mouth of the Loire and Garonne, as from that of the Rhine and 
the Seine. Encyc. geo.^njol. i., p. i. 

* Strabo lib. ij., 27. 

t Ibid. c. 4. Caesar is here copied, v., 8. ‘‘Solvit naves ad 
occasum solis,” See. “ Accessum est ad Brittanniam omnibus 
navibus fere meridiano tempore.” 





Caesar. 


73 


casioned by the dropping of the wind about 
midnight, leaving the fleet in the absolute 
power of the tide, which carried it far beyond 
the object of Caesar’s aim. Further, “ Britain is 
triangular in form ; its longest side lies parallel 
to Keltica; in length, neither exceeding nor 
falling short of it, for each of them extends as 
much as 4,300 or 4,400 stadia,” that is, between 
the mouth of the Rhine at Leyden, and the 
northern promontory of the Pyrenees in Ac- 
quitania, and the English coast, from Kent to 
the western extremity of Britain, which he 
supposes to be opposite to the Acquitania and 
the Pyrenees ; consequently he fell into the 
monstrous mistake of supposing the Siene, the 
Loire and Garonne to flow into the English 
channel. Again, “the length of Britain itself 
is nearly the same as that of Keltica, opposite 
to which it extends. Altogether it is not more 
than 5,000 stadia in length, its outermost points 
corresponding to those of the opposite conti¬ 
nent. In fact, the extreme points of the two 
countries lie opposite to each other, the eastern 
extremity to the eastern, and the western to the 
western; the eastern points are situated so 
close, as to be in sight of each other, both at 
Kent and the mouth of the Rhine. Pytheas 





74 


Caesar. 


tells us that the island of Britain is more than 
20,000 stadia in length, and that Kent is some 
day’s sail from France.'”* In the latter case, 
it is probable, notwithstanding the undeserved 
censure of Strabo, that Pytheas was not far 
wrong. The latter was a native of Marseilles, 
and knew no other route than along the western 
coast of Britain. Coasting along the shore 
of Gaul to the port of Gessoriacum ; by land, 
the distance is greater.f The entire length of 
the Gallic coast is about 650 miles. The 
British, considerably less. From Cap Gris 
Nez to the mouth of the old Rhine, is about 


* “ The voyage of Pytheas, the Massilian navigator, is of 
peculiar interest-, as it is the only one described in any detail, 
having Europe and particularly the British Isles for its object. 
It is known to us solely by the hostile quotations of the sceptical 
Strabo, adduced for the purpose of proving Pytheas to be ‘ a liar 
of the first magnitude!’ Yet, the nature of the grounds on 
which this conclusion is made to rest, is such as to place, in the 
clearest light, Strabo’s own ignorance and the superi r infor¬ 
mation of Pythias.” Encyc. geo. y p. 22. 

f Higgin’s Celtic Druids, 105. Thirty days journey. “It is 
they (Belerians) who produce tin, which they melt into the shape 
of astraglia, and they carry it to an island in front of Britain, 
called lctis. This isle is left dry at low tides, and they then 
transport the tin in carts from the shore 5 here the traders buy it 
from the natives, and carry it to Gaul, over which it travels, on 
horse-back, in about 30 days, to the mouths of the Rhone.’’ 
Diod. Secu., v., 21 22. 






Caesar . 


75 


170 miles. The imaginary parallelism of 
Strabo, as applied to these two coasts, and the 
supposed near approximation of the Rhine to 
Norfolk, together with many other errors, part 
of which has just passed under review, are too 
egregious to afford a basis whereon to found 
a theory antagonistic to authentic history, 
topographical observation, and ethnological 
research. 

As to the distance between Gaul and Britain, 
no two ancient writers agree. Strabo, as we 
have seen, maintains that the mouths of the 
Rhine and the shores of Britain were in sight 
of each other—a sad error. Diod. Secu. names 
100 furlongs.* Pliny, a few days sail. Zosi- 
mus, 900 stadia; and Amm. Merc, a very 
narrow strait.j* But in order to meet the 
stubborn difficulties which beset you, at the 
very threshold of inquiry, you suppose that 
some mighty convulsion, some tremendous 
flood, or the continued operation of some 


* Its form is triangular, like Sicily, but the sides are unequal. 
It lies in an oblique line over against the continent of Europe} 
so that the promontory, called Cantium, next to the continent— 
they say is about 100 furlongs from land. 

f Lived fourth cent. 




7 6 


Caesar. 


natural cause, have widened the distance be¬ 
tween the mouths of the Rhine and the shore 
of Norfolk, at a period subsequently to the 
age of Strabo. That great revolutions have 
taken place on the shores of almost every part 
of northern Europe will be admitted. But 
that any serious or vastly damaging flood has 
assailed the eastern cost of Kent or Norfolk, 
since the advent of the Christian era, cannot be 
successfully argued. 

If any important flood has occurred, so as to 
have lengthened the distance of Cromer from 
the continent, it is to be sought for on the 
northwest coast of Gaul, north of French 
Flanders; where great and awful changes in 
both aspect and condition have happened. 
These revolutions in the neighborhood of the 
northern ocean are the work of untold time, 
and the calamitous effects of countless ages, 
into which it is not my business to inquire. 
Such changes, however, as have taken place on 
the coasts of Kent, Norfolk, &c., are chiefly 
confined to the great levels or plains through 
which the Thames, the Humber, the Yare, the 
Stour, &c., in Britain ; the Rhine, the Maas, 
the Schelde, &c., in Gaul, whose estuaries now 
* mark their embrouchures, were vast arms of 



Caesar. 


77 


the sea, into which vessels of considerable 
burthen formerly sailed with ease and rapidity, 
many miles inland. I hese facts are suscepti¬ 
ble of proof. And further, to meet the conflict¬ 
ing accounts which seem to harass geological 
speculation, it has been supposed, that at 
some remote period of the world, that part 
of the sea called the “ British Channel,” was 
a neck of land, which united Gaul and 
Britain; but which at a more recent era, 
became separated by some extraordinary con¬ 
vulsion or vast flood. This breach having 
been effected, a passage was created, which on 
every recurring tide, or more than ordinary 
flood, the chasm became widened, until it 
assumed its present aspect. Dr. Giles, in 
his history of the ancient Britons, (in a 
note) would seem to encourage the idea that 
the southeast promontory of Britain extended 
much further toward Belgium and Holland 
than it does at present, and the tradition 
respecting the Godwin sands having been once 
dry land receives confirmation from it, p. 62, cap . 
v. Verstegan, p. 78, thinks the same; but he 
supposes the connecting isthmus to have been 
very narrow and confined to the rocks, “ of 
Dover unto the like rocks lying between Calls 




7 8 


Caesar. 


and Bullin'' Dr. Giles, half a convert to the 
peninsula character of Britain, is willing to 
allow the Godwin sands to be a corroborating 
circumstance of the fact. But, in seeking to 
establish an extraordinary cause to that which 
is capable of being accounted for, on the ordi¬ 
nary operations of nature, is not within the 
range of sober reason, Strabo, lib. ii. 28, and 
other writers already cited, prove that the 
distance between Gaul and Britain was nearly 
in the same relative condition in the time of 
Caesar as now. 

We will next briefly examine the pretensions 
which the coast of Kent claims to be regarded 
as the only and exclusive site on which Caesar 
landed on his descents on Britain. The dis¬ 
tance of Portus ItiuS) or Boulogne from Rutupii , 
Richborough, may seem too great; but if, in 
the absence of certainty, such trifling difficulties, 
as is thought to exist here, were suffered to 
stifle inquiry, it would be impossible to locate, 
or identify, more than one-half of the Roman 
stations in Britain. These objections therefore 
ought not, nor do they invalidate reasonable 
conjecture, or legitimate conclusions. 

In reference to the difficulties involved in 
this branch of our inquiry, Mr. S. Gale 



Caesar. 


79 


remarks, £< nothing certain can be concluded 
from thence, i. e., the distance of Boulogne 
from Richborough. The number of miles 
between each being, in the various copies of 
the geographical charts and Itineraries, occa¬ 
sioned no doubt, by the ignorance or, careless¬ 
ness of transcribers, from whence it comes that 
every little fishing creek along the Gallic coast, 
is mistaken for the celebrated Portus Iccius* 
Dr. Halley, as cited by Hasted,f is certain 
that the clifis mentioned, were those of Dover; 
and from the tide and other circumstances the 
Downs was the place where he landed. Mr. 
Airy has likewise studied the subject with 
much attention, but they do not agree, either 
on the place where Caesar embarked, or at 
what particular point in Kent he landed. It 
would seem, therefore, that these eminent men 
came to a conclusion very different from your 
positive dicta, that no other port than that of 
Cromer, or its vicinity, will suit your theory, 
or meet the requirements of the Commentaries. 

In this connection, sir, the early origin and 
extraordinary importance of Rutupia, render 
it an object of imposing interest. Situated on 


* Archasologia, vol. i., 205. 


f Introd. p. viij. 





8 o 


Caesar. 


the shore of the Wantsum, or river Stour, 
says Ptolomy, stood a city, called Rutupia ; by 
Tacitus, Portus Prutulensis ; celebrated for its 
oysters ;* and as the general landing place from 
Gaul. The era of its origin is not satisfacto¬ 
rily agreed on, but all assign to it an early 
period, prior, perhaps, to the time of Caesar ; a 


* “ RhutupinO've edita J'undo Ostrea celebat primo deprehendere 
morsu Juvenal, i-v. 141.” The territory around the town, Rutupia 
is styled Rutupinus ager , and the coast Rutupinus littus. The 
latter was celebrated for its oysters, as the coast near Margate and 
Riculver is to the present day 5 large beds of oyster shells have 
been found in the neighborhood of from four to six feet under 
the surface. Juvenal, lashing Curtius Montanus, the epicure, 
about oysters brought from Rutupia to Rome, says— 

“ In arts of eating, none more early train’d, 

None, in my time, had equal skill attain’d 
It, whether Cercis’ rock, his oysters bore, 

Or Lucerne Lake, or the Rutupian shore.” 

The British oysters were deservedly famous among the Romans, 
and even as early as the reign of Vespasian, were thought to be 
worthy to be carried into Italy. Pliny, lib. ix. 54. The best 
were gathered on the shore of Kent, being denominated the 
“ Oysters of Rutupes,” and were of the same species probably, 
and collected from the same place, as those at Folkstone at 
present, which Twyne, about ten centuries ago, commended 
above all the rest in the island. So here, as well as at “ Wells,” 
oysters are, and have been found from the earliest times, and 
that too in the greatest abundance and finest quality. This 
instance, like others, does not establish any point. In all Roman 
stations great quantities of oyster shells are found. 





Caesar . 


8 i 


knowledge of which it is probable was then 
prevalent in Gaul, and were its reputed 
distance from Boulogne, 45 or 50 miles, it 
would, without a rival, be esteemed as the 
veritable site of Caesar’s place of disembarka¬ 
tion in Britain.* 

However necessary it may be, on some 
occasions, to tamper with testimony, to yield 
to wild and extravagant conjecture for the sake 
of meeting difficulties, especially in the absence 
of reasonable probability, is neither critically just 
or plausible ; but on this occasion it will not, I 
hope, be considered as violating the rules of 
sober criticism, were I to assert, that there are 
historical, local and topographical notices which 
contribute their respective quota in favor of 
Rutupia, or its immediate neighborhood, being 
the location where Caesar disembarked, and 
established his camp. cc Right famous and of 
great name,” says Camden, “was this city while 
the Romans ruled here. From hence was the 


* “Ad Astrale Wantsumi ostium, quid alucum mutasse cre- 
dunt, b regione insulae apposita fuit urbs, quae Ptolemeo 
Rhutupiae, Tacito Portus Trutulensis, pro Rhutupensis , H. B. 
Rhenanus nos non fallit, Antonino Rhitupis Portus, Ammiano 
Rhutupiae, Statio ; Orosio Rhutubia portus , and ci-vitas , Anglis, 
teste Beda Reptacester, aliis Ruptimuth, Alfredo Beverlacemi 
Richberge y hodie Richborrow.” Camd. p. 204, ed. 1587. 





82 


Caesar. 


usual passage out of Britain to France and the 
Netherlands.* At it the Roman fleets arrived, 
here too it was that Lupicinus sent Constantine 
the Emperor into Britain to repress the rodes 
(raids) and invasions of the Scots and Piets, 
both landed the Heruli, Batavians and Maesian 
regiments. H ere also Theodosius, father of 
Theodosius the Emperor, to whom, as Sym- 
machus witnesseth, the Senate decreed for paci¬ 
fying Britain, armed statues on horseback, 
arrived with his Herculi, Jovii, Victores and 
Fidentes, for these were names of Roman regi¬ 
ments.*!* Batteley ascribes its foundation to 
Roman workmen, who, more than once, had 
seen Caesar’s navy dashed and wrecked by the 
boisterous surges of the British channel.” 
Bede calls it a city ; nor has time totally ef¬ 
faced every vestige of its former extent. Pass¬ 
ing from Belgic Gaul, the first place in Britain 
which opens to the eye is the city of Rutupbi 
portus , by the English corrupted Reptacestri. 
The distance from hence across the sea to Ges- 
soriacum, the nearest shore of the Morini, is 
fifty miles.J 


* Camden, p. 204, ed. 1587. 
f See Ammianus Merc, xxvij. 8. 

X Lib. i. cap. i. Bede copied from Pliny, Solinus, &c. 





Caesar . 


83 


Richard of Cirencester calls it a cc primary 
station of the Romans which was colonized 
and became the metropolis, and where a haven 
was formed capable of containing the Roman 
fleet, which commanded the North sea. This 
city was of such celebrity that it gave the name 
of Rutupia to the neighboring shore—hence 
Lucan ; aut vaga quum 'Thetis Rhutupinaque lit- 
tora fervent . In his first Iter, which he de¬ 
nominates his Diaphragmata , is this heading, 
Rhutupis prim a in Britannia insula civitas versus 
Galliayn , apud Cantios sita a Gessoriaco Bononiae 
portu , unde commodissimus in supradictam insulam 
transitus oblingit , ccccl. stadia , vel ut alii volunt xl 
vi. mille passuum remota; Ab eadem civitate dicta 
est via Guethelinga dicta , usque in Segontium , per 
m. p. cccxxiiij. plus minus sic A The hill on which 
the castle stood is believed to be a more per¬ 
fect specimen of Roman architecture than is to 
be found in Britain, for the details of which I 
refer you to Brayley’s Kent, &c. But I will 
cite Leland who saw it in the reign of Henry 

* Works, p. 480, “ Rhutupis Colonia Sandwich Richborough 
and Stonar castle, Kent, is the first city, says our author, in the 
island of Britain towards Gaul\ ; situated among the Cantii, op¬ 
posite to Gessoriacum , the port of Bononia , Bouloign , hence is the 
most commodious passage of ccccl. stadia, or, as others will 
have it, xlvj miles.” Stukeley , 41. 





84 


Caesar. 


VIII.: “The walls the wich remayne ther 
yet be a cumpace as much as the tour of Lon¬ 
don. They have bene very hye thykke and 
well embateled. The matter of them ys 
flynt marvelus and long bryker, both white 
and red after the Britons fascion. The sement 
was mayde of se sand and smaul pible. Ther 
ys a greate lykelyhod that the goodly hil about 
the castel, and specially to Sandwich-ward, 
hath bene wel inhabited. Corne groweth on 
the hille yn mervelus plentie, and yn going to 
plowgh, there hath owt of mynd found and is 
mo antiquities of Romayne mony then in any 
place els in England. Surely reason speketh 
that this shud be Rutupinum.” * 

* The area of the castle contains 6a, ir, 8p, inside 5a, 3r, 8p. 
Some of the stones, it is said, were obtained from the quarries in 
Gaul. In most of the Roman castles were postern gates. There 
was one or more here. Besides these evidences of a purely local 
character, there were many others which betoken early and con¬ 
tinuous occupation of a Roman station here; among which may 
be named pits for personal easement, “close at the outside of 
Roman towns are found numbers of deep and very narrow wells, 
which no doubt are the remains of conveniences for this purpose. 
The discovery of such wells is the sure sign of the proximity 
of a Roman station. They are numerous at Richborough and 
at Winchester. These pits or wells served for other purposes 
than that of easement” . . . . as is evident to a pit of this 
kind, at the Roman villa at Hartlip also in Kent. See Wright's 
Ce!t, Roman and Saxon, pp. 181-345. 







Caesar. 


85 


In relation to the distances named by old 
writers, it is necessary to bear in mind that 
they were not always measured, but generally 
only reputed miles; and further that Roman 
miles were shorter than English ones. This 
discrepancy indeed yet exists in a greater or 
less degree in many works of a comparatively 
recent date. I refer more particularly to Le- 
land’s Itinerary. Under any circumstance, 
however, the distance of Boulogne, the reputed 
Portus Itius of Caesar to Rutupia is not the 
shortest passage to Britain. This fact, coupled 
with other objective reasons unduly raised, 
have induced some to suppose Deal, which lies 
a few miles south of Rutupia, and directly on 
the beach, though within perhaps its juris¬ 
diction, to be the bona fide site of Caesar’s 
camp. Indeed the entire shore' north of 
Dover especially, was one vast Roman mili¬ 
tary depot, unequalled in any other part of 
Britain. These defences, as manifested by 
their continued occurrence, extended for miles 
inland, exhibiting a series of their relics, 
consisting of castellated and domestic archi¬ 
tecture; national encampments, coins, pot¬ 
teries, and numerous other memorials betoken¬ 
ing their chief occupation of this coast. 




86 


Caesar. 


Battely supposes the point of land doubled 
by Caesar and spoken of by Dion, was some 
headland to the left on entering Rutupia 
harbor, and not forsaken by the sea, (/>. 69,) 
and thinks that it was the first port in Britain 
from the Continent as Boulogne was the first 
for Britain on the Continent. Of the same 
opinion is Mr. Lyon. # 

The amphitheatre was also a splendid 
building. tc It was situate 460 yards north¬ 
west of the castle. It measured 68 yards from 
north to south, and n\ feet deep in the 
opposite direction, it was 70 yards over and 7 
feet deep.”')* The castle was a formidable 
edifice. The wall was 12 feet thick. 

The earthworks which Camden saw three 
hundred years since, he ascribes to the military 
operations of Caesar ; but notwithstanding his 
reputation for accuracy and erudition, the ex¬ 
tensive topographical operations effected on 
that part of the coast by the surges of flood 
and tide, render it dubious whether those hills 
were the work of design, or of adventitious 
circumstances; but Poste is of opinion that 
those which lie between Deal and Sandwich are 

* Archaeologia, x. 8. 
f Gough’s Camden, vo.l. i. 355. 





Caesar. 


8 7 

of great antiquity, as there is evidence to 
show.* Moreover, the general tradition is, 
that Caesar landed at Deal or its immediate 
vicinity. This view is likewise countenanced 
by a tabular notice, formerly placed in the 
castle of Dover.f Thus, ex chronico Dovar 
monaster, Julius Caesar pugnavit, cum Britan- 
nis and Cassivellano super Rarendoune ut patet 
per acervos, ubi corpora occisorum tumalata 
cumulation non longe a villa de Brigge.J 

As to the location of Portus Itius, I pre¬ 
sume it is scarcely necessary to bestow on it 
any special attention, because its fate depends 
on the adjustment of the site of the Morini, 
within the limits of which Caesar says it was 
placed,^. 2. Atque jubet omnes convenire ad Por¬ 
tion Itius ex quo portu cognoverat trijectum in 
Britanniam esse commodissimum circiter triginta 
millium passuam a contenti. From this language 
of the Commentaries it is, that we learn whence 
Caesar sailed on his first expedition, as well as 
his motive for the assembly of his troops 
here.§ Indeed, I am not conscious that any 


* Antiq. Brit. 285. 

f Deal or Dole, a plain or valley lying near the sea, or a river 
where Caesar fought a battle with the Britons. 

J Leland’s Itir, vol. vij. 131. § B. G. V. 8. &c. 






88 


Caesar . 


authority ventures to place this celebrated port 
without the boundaries of the Morini. Some, 
it is true, name Wissant, and others Calais, to be 
its site; but the Emperor says that the former 
place never possessed the requisite fitness for 
any such purpose, being only “a small modern 
redoubt, incapable of containing more than 
two hundred menwhile the latter place, 
according to the learned Chancellor of France, 
L’Hospital, well versed in matters of antiquity, 
asserts that Calais is a place of no great 
antiquity, and was only a small village, such as 
the French call Bourgadoes , till Philip, Earl of 
Boulogne, enclosed it with walls not many years 
before the English took it. But much more 
recently, Mr. Pearson on the contrary main¬ 
tains “that Portus Itius is Wissant,” a small 
town between Cape Gesner and Calais, seems 
proved by several considerations, among which 
are the traces of a Roman road and camp still 
in existence there, and the close agreement as 
to distances from Deal, &c. 

In a recent work of considerable ability and 
extensive research, lately published in London 
by Mr. F. H. Appach, p. 92, he attempts to 
account for the etymology of the term ; “ Itium 
is the Latin form which Caesar adopted to rep- 



Caesar . 


89 


resent to his readers the Celtic name by which 
the harbor (of Boulogne) was known to the 
Gauls. * % * * In some MSS. it is written 
lcius y in other Iccius , and is probably a cor¬ 
ruption of the Celtic Uisge- water. This is 
represented in Welsh by wysg a current, and 
by gwy or wy , water. This root, subject to 
various phonetic mutations, is found in the 
names of a vast number of rivers.” But, as 
these terms denote only a simple element 
universally prevalent, they lack a discriminating 
character. Isques , a village on the bank of the 
Liane, as conjectured by Harbaville, better suits 
the locality. 

But the chief battle with the Britons took 
place after being driven from the shore, on the 
banks of the river Stour, the presumed flumen 
of Caesar. This river, one of the chief streams 
in Kent, rises near Lyming, flows from south 
to north, and passes the supposed battle ground 
in its progress to the sea, at Hope Bay, south 
of Sandwich. This Bay, according to Major 
Rennell, was formerly the mouth of a wide and 
navigable channel, of eight or nine miles in 
length, which separated the isle of Thanet, 
from the main land in Kent, through which 




9 ° 


Caesar. 


ships sailed into the estuary of the Thames 
from the south. 

In addition to this river there was another, 
called the Little Stour, less in length and bulk of 
water; but was nearly parallel with the other 
Stour. On this stream, which passes through 
the neighborhood of Barham, Kingtown, and 
Beaksbourne, near the former of which some 
think Caesar defeated the Britons. Its distance 
is its chief claim. I presume, sir, it is scarcely 
worth while to again notice your flippant re¬ 
marks in relation to this river. Whatever 
may be its charcter now I am ignorant; but at 
a more early period of its history, it was no 
inconsiderable stream.'* The great Stour was 
a more than common river. On its banks and 
immediate neighborhood, great and important 
military transactions have transpired, but its 
distance from Deal is thought to militate 
against any part of it being the scene of con¬ 
flict between Caesar and the Britons. But, if 
the vicinity of Chartham be too remote, Barham 
is too near. 

Tradition, which is rarely, if ever, unfounded, 

* Rich, tie Beke, as we read in Testa de Nevil, held land here 
in grand sergentry, to find one ship each time King Henry iii. 
should pass the sea. Philip, 62. 







Caesar. 


9 1 


reports that Caesar came up with the Britons at 
Chilham, a village west-southwest of Canter¬ 
bury, usually,pronounced Julham * The Stour 
passes through this parish. This opinion is 
founded on the frequent discovery of coins, 
foundation of houses, and other remains in¬ 
dicative of Roman residence. The castle is of 
great antiquity—a strong fortress, and the pal¬ 
ace of the early kings of Kent. Some imagine 
it was erected by the Britons as a defence 
against Roman incursions. Kilburne makes 
it the seat of King Lucius. Philpot says, in 
digging the foundation of Sir Dudley Degge’s 
fine house near this castle, in 1616 , Roman 
culinary vessels and utensils and foundations of 
more ancient buildings were discovered, accom¬ 
panied by a kind of senate house, built round, 
having stone seats.f 

The importance of this place did not escape 
the prying eye of Leland. He writes : c< From 
the Chronicles of Christ Church, Canterbury, 
the Empress Maud, or Matilda, mother of 
Hen. i. rebuilt Rose Castle, which, in some 

evidences, is called ‘Joseph’s Castle;’ look that 


* From a tumulus close by, called Julham’s grave, 
f Philpott, 117. 






9 2 


Caesar. 


this be not Chilham’s Castle that once the 
Lord Rosse, is now almost down. It was 
fortified by Wilfred, King of Kent, and de¬ 
stroyed by the Danes in 838 or 851. It was 
chief of an honor temp * Hen. i.” Were not 
the distance objectionable, this part of the 
Great Stour is better entitled to be esteemed 
the site of Caesar’s battle with the British 
than any other location. Mr. Cozens is of 
opinion that here the conflict took place, and, 
after being defeated, the Britons tc retreated to 
Shillingheld wood, a mile northwest of the 
river, where yet remain extensive and com¬ 
plicated work as bespoke ruder artists than the 
Romans.” From this wood, he supposes, the 
Britons were at last driven ; for soon after the 
conflict, Caesar returned to the seashore to 
repair his fleet, then rejoined his army in his 
former station—probably in Iffin wood. Cassi- 
vellaunus, having also resumed his harassing, 
advanced parties for a time, and then made a 
general attack on the Romans, in which the 
Britons defeated the advanced guard, and two 
cohorts sent to its assistance, slaying Quintus 
Liberius Durus. This attack appears to have 


* Lcland, vol. vij. 





Caesar. 


93 


commenced at the river, between Caesar’s post 
in Iffin wood, and Cassivellaunus in Shilling- 
held wood, where is now the large tumulus, 
supposed to be that of Laberius; and, as 
Chartham and Swerdling Douns lie about 
midway between the river and Iffin wood, are 
covered with tumuli, whither we may sup¬ 
pose the Romans were, on their discomfiture, 
obliged to retreat; and where, having received 
considerable reinforcements, they ultimately de¬ 
feated the Britons. Nothing but the reputed 
distance from Richborough to Boulogne mili¬ 
tates against this conjecture; and that, upon 
mature investigation, and the then topographi¬ 
cal state of the beach, the objections would not 
be so formidable as are supposed.'* 

In 1816, the archaeological society appointed 
a committee to make an excursion into the 
county of Kent, with a view to inspect some of 
the most popular and interesting places con¬ 
nected with the antiquities of that celebrated 
county. Among other places the committee 
visited Chilham. At a subsequent meeting of 
the members, the Rev. R. C. Jenkins read a 
very interesting paper on that subject, in which 


* See Gough’s Add. vol. i. 355. 





94 


Caesar . 


the question concerning Caesar’s landing-place 
was canvassed, and the conclusion arrived at 
was that at Chilham occurred the contest be¬ 
tween Caesar and Cassivellaunus, which the 
Emperor of France locates at Kingston on 
the Little Stour; which, at a more early 
date, was a considerable stream, and navigable. 
Richard de Beke held Bekesburne on con¬ 
dition of finding a ship each time Henry III. 
should pass the sea. 

Further, sir, throughout that part of Kent 
it is persistently insisted on that Caesar, on his 
second expedition, here, or in the immediate 
vicinity, defeated the Britons, who retreated in 
good order and entrenched themselves in an 
adjoining wood, where the vestiges of these 
rude but extensive earthworks yet remain vis¬ 
ible. Indeed, the entire line travelled by the 
army is one continued assemblage of their 
military operations mixed up with Roman 
relics and British tokens of war along the total 
route. The extent and form of this entrench¬ 
ment are decidedly Roman. It commanded a 
vast and interesting view of the surrounding 
country. The earthworks are about two miles 
in compass, containing about one hundred 
acres of land, and must have been the labor of 




Caesar. 


95 


much time, and many hands—facts that are 
calculated to induce a supposition that the 
belligerents had not time to establish works 
so immense; but it is more than probable 
that they were thrown up and fortified by the 
Britons before Caesar’s invasion; or, at a 
subsequent period, by Plautius, while waiting 
for the arrival of Claudius, who ultimately 
joined him, on the Thames. 

It is scarcely worth while, on this occasion, 
to solicit your attention to the relative antiqui¬ 
ties of the two countries—Kent and Norfolk— 
inasmuch as I am situated, the requisite means 
of doing so, in a satisfactory manner, are not 
at my command. I must, therefore, be con¬ 
tent, and refer the reader to the local historians 
of each county. So far, however, as my infor¬ 
mation extends, I feel perfectly sure that those 
in the former by far exceed the latter, both in 
number and importance. In my preceding 
remarks, and subsequent observations, will be 
found incidental notices touching this phase of 
my Review, which, notwithstanding the “re¬ 
searches of all kinds made by the officers, Stoffel 
and Hamelin,” Roman remains abound to 
excess in almost every part of Kent. cc The 
assurance of boatmen navigating the Thames, 




9 6 


r 


Caesar . 


that between Shipperton and London there are 
now eight or nine places fordable.” Such, now, 
may be the case; but what was the condition 
of that river nineteen centuries ago ? No one 
acquainted with the gradual and imperceptible 
change in all rivers in large valleys, subject to 
flood and tide, have effected, can measure 
the consequences, or estimate the extent of 
damage sustained by the perpetual action of 
shifting currents and silting tides, which, by 
slow, but continuous operation, effect on local 
topography. Norwich, now distant, perhaps, 
from the estuary of the Sare, 10 miles, was for¬ 
merly overflown by the tidal* swell. 

On a more limited scale, these facts, sir, are 
well illustrated in your immediate neighbor¬ 
hood. Within the lapse of a few centuries, the 
vast level which covered a part of the counties 
of York, Lincoln, Cambridge and Bedford, 
known by different names in different places, 
was, at no very distant period, a fruitful valley, 
and more or less under profitable cultivation ; 
but which, through causes not altogether 
unknown, became overflown with water. 
This great expanse of country having become 


* Blomfield’s Norfolk, cap. i. fol. ed. 






Caesar. 


97 


drowned, and the bed and banks of the nu¬ 
merous rivers which coursed through it became 
considerably elevated above the circumjacent 
land, so that the floods eventually could not 
regain their wonted streams, which, becoming 
stagnant, a growth of aquatic plants was en¬ 
couraged, and at length a mass of peat earth 
and silt raised the level many feet above its 
former summit; and probably the walls of 
Ebor, at some earlier period, may have felt the 
briny embrace of old Neptune. That a por¬ 
tion, and probably a large one, of this extensive 
flat was formerly under cultivation is certain. 
This, I assert on my own knowledge. Some 
fifty years since, a gentleman, named Jacob 
Mawe, living on the Dutch Torne, a little 
above Wroot, had occasion to dig a pit near his 
residence, when he discovered evident marks of 
cultivation. The land was in ridge and fur¬ 
row, and part of a fence, still entire, was dug 
through. Other tokens of the same character 
were met with on the same occasion; but as no 
extensive excavation was effected, nothing more 
was discovered. 

Not having seen the report, or know the 
precise object of Stoffel and Hamelin’s re¬ 
searches in Kent, I am unable to ascertain their 




9 8 


Caesar. 


chief purport; but their intention was, if I 
understand Napoleon’s brief citation, to inves¬ 
tigate the line of march which Caesar took to 
reach the Thames. These researches report— 
<c that there remains not the slightest vestige 
in the county of Kent which assists us in tracing 
the march of the Roman army.” The camp at 
Holwood, near Keston, which the English 
maps call Caesar’s camp, does not belong to 
the period of which we are treating; on St. 
George’s hill, near Watton-on-the-Thames, no 
camp ever existed. The same thing must be 
said of Coway stakes. At Halliford, in spite of 
the termination of the word (ford), the inhab¬ 
itants have no tradition of an ancient ford. 
The only thing which appears to us evident, is 
that the Roman army did not pass below Ted- 
ington; we know that village, the name of 
which comes from Tid-en-town, the last point 
of the Thames where the tide is felt.* 

In relation to the Coway Stakes, there can- 


* The etymology here does not help their object. There is a 
place of the same name, where no tide can possibly exist— 
“ Tedington, a chapelry in the parish of Overbury, county Wor¬ 
cester.” Etymology, when skilfully called in aid, is often of 
essential service ; but, no branch of science has been more 
abused, or led to greater errors. 






Caesar . 


99 


not be raised a reasonable doubt; they might 
not, it is possible, be at the bend of the river 
Thames, at the village of Chartsey, but that 
such obstructions were in its neighborhood, is 
the testimony of Caesar,* of Bede and others.f 
Some name Walton-on-Thames, a little lower 
down, as their site, where multitudes of Roman 
remains are found, as will soon be noticed 
Tyrel says “some of them, in his time, had 
been pulled up, they having obstructed the 
navigation of the river; and indeed, of later 
years, many of them had been removed and 
sold to the curious as relics of rare remains.” 
In my time, some fifty or more years ago, I 
distinctly remember seeing in the periodicals of 
the day an account of one of them being re¬ 
covered from the banks of the Thames. It was 
represented to be perfectly sound, and black as 
ebony. It is objected to, on the ground that 
Cassivellaunus had not time to thus defend 
his hasty retreat; but it will be remembered 
that his means were ample ; nor is it known 
whether they were put down as means of de¬ 
fence on some earlier occasion. A little 


* Lib. v. 18. “ Autem ripa erat munita acutis sudibus praefixis 

que sudes ejusdem generis defixae sub aqua tegebantur flumine.” 
f E. H. lib. i. c. i. 





100 


Caesar. 


distance below, evident tokens of a Roman 
station remain visible, which may have been 
the site of this ford. Jeffrey, of Monmouth, 
mentions some such impediment in the Thames, 
but his remarks throw no fuller light on the 
subject.* 

The camp at Holwood, near Keston, does 
not belong to the period of which we are 
treating, say Stoffel and Hamelin ; but what is 
the verdict of history? Horsley supposes it to 
have been occupied by the Romans, as their 
summer quarters. This encampment was an 
immense affair, being nearly two miles in cir¬ 
cumference, and rendered extremely strong by 
exterior defences. One side by actual measure¬ 
ment of the inner vallum, was seven hundred 
yards long. Here are found great quantities 
of Roman bricks and tiles, ancient foundations 
and other remains. Dr. Harris says, I am 
fully persuaded it is Roman, not only from its 
form, but its other claims. Others think it 
was the entrenchment thrown up by Caesar 
when the Britons gave him the last battle, be¬ 
fore he crossed the Thames in pursuit of 


* Lib. iv. c. 6, 7. 




Caesar. 


IOI 


Cassivellaunus. It is doubly ditched and more 
than usually entire. # 

If, sir, we were to give these two engineers, 
Stoffel and Hamelin, full credence for their 
report, we must suppose that all our best 
antiquaries and profoundest archaeologists are 
all mistaken men. This I submit is scarcely 
tolerable. 

The immense number of antiquities which 
cover this neighborhood for miles, would 
appear to perplex antiquaries not a little, as to 
the bona fide site on which Caesar and Cassi¬ 
vellaunus contended for the palm of victory. 
That it was in this vicinity will scarcely be 
doubted, inasmuch as no other place will suit 
the requirements of the Commentaries, without 
pressing them fron^ their consistency and dis¬ 
turbing their sequency. The village of Chart- 
ham abounds with Roman relics: and its 
distance is not so objectionable as some pre¬ 
sume to think.j* In 1668, in sinking a well 


* Its Roman character is doubted on account of its extent; 
but the one hereafter noticed, report by the author of the pam¬ 
phlet is over twice its size. In B. G. v. 42, is one, said to be ten 
miles in circuit. 

f According to Phillpott’s map this place is not more than 
about thirteen miles from Deal $ and eleven from Richborough. 
In his second expedition he landed at the same place, and fought 




102 


Caesar . 


were found, about seventeen feet deep, a num¬ 
ber of large bones, and four petrified teeth, 
supposed to have been those of a marine ani¬ 
mal carried thither by water, which is thought 
to have been an arm of the sea, though nearly 
twenty miles distant from its estuary at Hope 
Bay. In 1730, Roger Gale, Esq., exhibited to 
the society of antiquaries, drawings of urns, 
fibula, &c., found here in June of that year, by 
Charles Fagge, Esq., in one of the small bar- 
rows, of which there are great numbers here¬ 
about,—Dane’s Bank on Swerdling Downs in 
this parish, three miles from Canterbury, and 
one and a half from Julham’s grave. Several 
other barrows were opened from east to west 
with the same results. .The interments were in 
solid chalk.* * 

In addition to those briefly noticed, many 
others were found by the late reverend Bryan 
Fawcet, and are still in the possession of his 
son; there can be no doubt of their being 
Roman remains. Dr. C. Mortimer, who wrote 


the enemy near a river at a place, c'lrciter duodecim milliapassaum 
from the site of his camp. 

* Canterbury is supposed to have been, in Roman times, a sea 
port, “though history be silent on that subject.” Pastes' Brit. 
Antiq. p. 254. Chartham is a little southwest of Canterbury. 





Caesar. 


I0 3 

a dissertation on these antiquities, thinks the 
spot answers that where Caesar first encountered 
the Britons, and that the fortress southwest of 
the barrows, and Shillingheld wood, was that 
to which they retreated. Here are also en¬ 
trenchments covered with inner ditches, banks 
and cavities, foundations of walls, three feet 
thick, broken tiles and bricks. 

On p. 5, you, sir, raise another objection to 
the channel theory, which likewise fails to serve 
you. Napoleon, you say, cc is obliged to 
picture a landing upon a coast which is not in 
a corn producing country, and there (in Kent) 
he could not send out as he did his legions to 
forage.” This assurance is somewhat strange, 
and is I believe incapable of being sustained. 
In every page of its history, and more par¬ 
ticularly so in its more ancient annals. Caesar 
bears testimony that Kent was very populous,* 
infinita and their buildings most numerous 
creberrima , like those of Gaul, and great num¬ 
ber of cattle. Diod. Secul. reports, the island 
(of Britain) is very populous, but the climate is 


* Multitude) hominum es infinita^ que acdificia, creberrime fere 
consimilia Gallices numerous pecoies magnus, v. 12. Diod 
Secul, v. 21. There were but wretched huts, made of stubble 
and wood; Diod. lived temp. Caesar. 






io4 


Caesar . 


cold and subject to frosts.* Arrowsmith 
mentions the isle of Thanet as famed for its 
fertility at an early period ;f and Julian for¬ 
warded from the Rhine, 600 or 800 ships to 
Britain, to load with corn—a fleet sufficient to 
import 120,000 quarters of grain. Ammianus 
says this fleet was dispatched for provisions 
generally.J And as most of the inhabitants in 
the interior sowed no corn, but lived on milk 
and flesh, the chief of the former therefore 
must have been grown in the maritime districts, 
which peculiarly applies to Kent.§ The country, 
says Tacitus, does not afford either the vine or 
olive, butyieldeth corn in great plenty.|| Strabo 
names corn and cattle among the commodities 
exported from Britain to Gaul, and from 
the port of Rutupia in particular, and the 
southeast coast of Britain.Moreover if the 

* Ibid. v. p. 185, cap. 2. 

f Comp. Geog. 86. 

J Julian’s Epist. to the Athenians, vol. 1. 86. Julian lived A. 
D. 331, ob. 3635 over 400 years after Caesar. I have failed to 
discover this circumstance in Ammianus. 

$ Caesar, v. 15. 

|| Vol. iij. 29, Life of Agricula. 

K Lib. iv. Also Huet on Anc. Comm, xxviij. 4. Amm. 
Marcell. lib. xviij 2. “And also to establish granaries in the 
places of those which had been burnt, in which to store corn 
usually imported from Britain,” Diod. Secu. lib. v. 2. In reap- 





Caesar. 


10 5 


eastern coast of Kent grew no grain, as you 
seem willing to insinuate, where was the use of 
such vast granaries ? Gaul, writes Pliny, yield- 
eth a kind of corn of their own, which they call 
Branc , and we Sandalum , a grain of the finest 
sort.* Now, the Branc of Gaul, was peculiarly 
Gallic, in its original, and might be introduced 
into Britain, at a very early period, and is per¬ 
haps no other than the common buckwheat of 
modern times. Its yield is large, and its 
product in fine flour per bushel is heavy, and 
maybe the naturalized kind of spelt of Pliny or 
the Fegopyrum of Ray.f 

On p. 7 of your pamphlet you bring the 
Brittia of Procopius to your aid, De B . Goth^ 
iv. 20, and affirm that he evidently means 
Britannia , to argue this obscure piece of history ; 
this myth ; this romance, if I may so denomi- 


ing of their corn, they cut off the ears from the stalk, and so 
house them up in repositories under ground. 

* Pliny, lib. xviij. n. “The Gauls have also a kind of spelt 
peculiar to that country ; they give it the name of ‘ Brace.’ The 
translators, in a note—a variety, propably of the Triticum hiber- 
num of Linnaeus, with white grains; the white wheat of the 
French, from which the ancient Gauls made their malt. Spelt is 
a hardy kind of the Triticum, and then in more general use, than 
any other grain.” 

f Dicti. Trilin. 


0 







io6 


Caesar . 


nate it, is not worth the time and trouble it 
required to render it subservient to your pur¬ 
pose. This mysterious place is represented as 
lying within 200 stadia from the mouths 
of the Rhine, and between the islands of 
Thule and Britain. But a question here 
arises. Where is Thule, or where did Pro¬ 
copius suppose it was ? He says Brittia was 
inhabited by three nations of people—The 
Angili, Frissones and Britons. For the site 
of Thule he refers to a former page, vol ij. 25 ; 
where he identifies it with Scandinavia; and 
Britannia as lying opposite to the extremity of 
Spain, and separated from the continent by 
4,000 stadia or 500 miles. But Brittia lies at 
the hindermost extremity of Gaul, where it 
borders on the ocean ; that is north of Spain 
and Britain; whereas, Thule, so far as is 
known to men, lies at the farthest extremity 
of the ocean, towards the north.* 

After briefly noticing some of the most 
problematical features of the question, Long 
remarks, “Brittiawas not Britannia. As little 
was it Thule. The Thule of Procopius seems 
to have been Scandinavia. Thule is extremely 


% 


* Smith’s Diet. Geog. vol i. 430. 




Caesar. 


io 7 


large, being ten times larger than Britain, from 
which it is very far distant to the north.” It 
is scarcely necessary to give in detail the silly 
trash about the nine virgins, who exercised so 
successfully their priestly craft in raising and 
allaying storms; curing diseases, otherwise 
deadlythat a portion of the country was 
covered with serpents ; and the air such that 
no man could inhale and live, &c., and yet this 
glaring, this more than apocryphal account 
is attempted to be raised to the dignity of 
history, fitted to aid a doubtful position, more 
dubious than itself! 

Having, in a brief manner, noticed the most 
material points connected with the question, 
<c Did J ulius Caesar cross the Channel?” 
I will next proceed to discuss a portion of the 
less prominent aids, which you have enlisted 
into your service, in support of a theory which 
I have endeavored to expose and nullify, by an 
array of testimony which I venture to hope, 
will add in some degree, to the fact already 
proved, that Caesar on his invasion of Britain, 
did actually disembark his army on the shore 
of Kent, at a point about thirty miles from 
Gaul, and the shortest distance from the 
Morini, and not, sir, as you maintain, from the 



io8 


Caesar . 


£C mouths of the Rhine, or Schelde, most 
probably from a peninsula formerly the fore¬ 
shore of Walcheren,” which, I believe, to be 
incorrect, inasmuch as from its geographical 
position it was impracticable, and at odds with 
all that Caesar has written. For it must be 
conceded that Strabo, Florus, Pliny, &c., 
obtained much, if not the chief of what relates 
to Gaul and Britain, from the pen of Caesar, 
added to what they could glean from other 
sources. Strabo was contemporary with Caesar 
and might easily derive considerable information 
from the officers, &c., who accompanied him to 
Britain, which, of necessity, must have been 
vague and ununiform. 

On p. 3 you affirm that Caesar, in his first 
expeditions, landed off Cromer, on the shore of 
Norfolk. That, in his second, he proposed to 
make the land at or near “Wells,” and that, 
being carried a little beyond, found himself 
off Hunstanton in Metaris Estuarium , and, 
pulling into shore at Brancaster Bay, fixed 
there his camp.” On p. 17, after throwing a 
doubt on the veracity of Caesar in relation to 
the identity of the place at which he landed 
on both expeditions—which you subsequently 
abandon—Caesar made a night’s march of twelve 




Caesar. 


109 

miles to Hanworth—where from? Certainly 
not from Brancaster Bay, as a distance of 
twenty-six to thirty miles intervenes between 
the two places. Questioning, perhaps, the 
soundness of your theory, and jealous of the 
correctness of your views, you would seem to 
have hurried to the coast of Norfolk, and, 
with aspirations, beaming with ecstatic faith, 
that your cherished visions would be realized, 
and airy nothing £ galvanized ’ into a local 
habitation and a name.” Under these in¬ 
spiring impulses you hesitate not to profess 
that you could cc map out and explain, and 
take up your position within the ramparts 
of the camp at Holkham; the same almost, 
in its leading features, now, as Caesar placed 
and left them; and from thence we can trace 
the course of his night’s march to the strong¬ 
hold at Hanworth, the exact locality of which 
Caesar was well acquainted with from its situa¬ 
tion in reference to his first campaign.” “ We 
can point out the very place where he drew 
up his ships for safety, and whence, with that 
large army he could re-embark at a single 
tide; on that night he left that Britain, he 
dared to win ;” and to sustain the illusions, 
you have a shrewd idea that you can point 





I 10 


Caesar. 


out Cassivellaunus’s stronghold, and the place 
where he camped over against it, and the ford 
over which he sent his cavalry to turn their 
flanks. cc Whatever evidence the most scep¬ 
tical can ask for, we believe, as far as we have 
gone, we can produce it, and hold our own 
against all comers.” All this, to say the least, 
is very obscure. 

“We had fixed upon Cromer as the point 
where Caesar made the land; Sheringham, 
the promontory which Dion Cassius says he 
rounded; Weybourne, as the shingle beach, 
seven or eight miles distant, where the cliff 
ended and Caesar disembarked.* After taking 
a more thorough view of Cromer, and learn¬ 
ing its ineligible and unadapted character for 
affording facility and safety, he leads his arma¬ 
ment to Wells, on the same coast, but distant 
therefrom thirty-five to forty miles, which he 
could not make, being driven from his pur- 


* It is questionable whether the North Sea was ever known to 
the Romans in the age of Caesar. Huet, p. 244. “We cannot 
learn from history that the Roman commerce was anyways in¬ 
creased under Tiberius. We find only that that prince, having 
extended the Roman arms over Germany, as far as the river 
Elbe, whilst his fleet, after having crossed the North Sea (un¬ 
known till that time to the Romans), went up that river, and 
joined his army.” Huet , 242. Tiberius, a. d. 14. 








Caesar. 


11 i 


pose by the tide, which here, and in the 
channel, runs high and strong; he rounded St. 
Edmund’s Point, sailed coastwise by Holme 
to beyond Hunstanton, where at daylight he 
found himself; when, with the turn of the 
tide and the aid of oars, he retraced his course 
to Brancaster Bay, and there, after a run of 
sixteen or eighteen hours, he disembarked his 
army.” C£ Taking Holkham as Caesar’s ad¬ 
vanced camp, more strongly fortified, as being 
nearer the enemy—at a distance of twelve 
miles, in the rear of these Celtic towns, we 
find the stronghold of the British. Here, at 
Hanworth, is indeed a position c strong by 
nature and art.’ It is an enclosure on two 
sides of a triangle, # shut in by the river 
Glanvron. On the third, in the direction of 
Holt, defended by a strong embankment, the 
direction of which, notwithstanding the land 
being under plough, may be distinctly seen. 
It encloses an area of two to three hundred 
acres, a fact which takes from it its Roman 


* The Roman camp is usually square. The camp of Poly- 
byus, and others of Roman make, “was an exact square, the 
length of each side being 2,017 Roman feet.” Diet. Antiq. Art. 
Castra; but they varied in size according to circumstances, but 
rarely, if ever, in form. 






I I 2 


Caesar. 


features. It takes in wooded knolls and strong 
positions, and at the extreme apex of the tri¬ 
angle near the rectory, where the river comes 
to a narrow point, is a lofty hill-fort, the 
mound or earthwork we have little doubt that 
Caesar’s soldiers carried ‘forming the Tes- 
tudo,’ and behind are the hills and woods to 
which they drove the Britons !!” 

Such, sir, is the meagre and desultory his¬ 
tory you give of Caesar’s second expedition 
to Britain; but, unfortunately, it is not the 
testimony of the Commentaries, nor the ac¬ 
credited narrative of any writer, ancient or 
modern, with which I am acquainted. Caesar 
tells us, in his account of that adventure, 
which, to avoid repetition, I refer the reader 
to a former page.* That he sailed to Britain 
from the coast of the Morini, it being the 
nearest passage from Gaul, only thirty miles ; 
while the mouths of the Rhine, notwithstand¬ 
ing your dictum to the contrary, is four times 
that distance from the nearest point on the 
Norfolk coast. It is in evidence that Strabo 
was extremely ignorant of the coasts of Gaul 
and Britain. How could he be otherwise? 


* P. 8. 








Caesar . 


^3 

He was a contemporary of Caesar, and, as 
we have shown, never saw what he attempts 
to describe. Caesar himself, whose means of 
ascertaining a knowledge on that subject were 
far in advance of those of Strabo, was, after 
all the inquiries he made, obliged to despatch a 
spy to inspect the British shore and report as 
speedily as possible. After five days’ absence 
he returned with what he could collect; but, as 
he never reached land, his sum of information 
would, of necessity, be very scant. It is a 
singular fact that the eastern strand of Britain 
was better known to the Phoenicians than to 
the Romans in the time of Caesar. To ac¬ 
count for this apparent anomaly is difficult; 
but it is true. Huet, on commercial prin¬ 
ciples, notices the fact, but there leaves it. 
Higgins more fully demonstrates the defec¬ 
tion, but fails to assign an intelligible reason.* 
Strabo was a native of Greece and flourished 
in the early part of the first century. His 
geography is a most valuable relic, without 
which early cosmography would be little un¬ 
derstood ; but he has, as he was obliged, taken 

* P. 105 of his “ Celtic Druids.” “It is curious,” says Hig¬ 
gins, “to observe the Greeks decreasing in real science, as they 

improved in civilization and the fine arts.” 

6 * 






Caesar. 


114 

much on trust, and consequently liable to 
mistakes. His account of Gaul and Britain, 
as we have shown, is faulty and unreliable; 
therefore, when his descriptions are found to 
be in antagonism with topographical accuracy 
or geographical position, which is the case, we 
reject, as we are bound to do, his authority. 
No documentary matter, no topographical or 
cosmographical history go to prove that the 
mouths of the Rhine were other since Caesar’s 
time than such as they now are. That changes 
have occurred, will be admitted; but, com¬ 
pared with the vast and mighty revolutions 
which the perpetual law of currents effect on 
the surface of the globe, they are trifling 
indeed. 

But the objections raised against Strabo’s 
geography must be confined to local districts. 
Nor is he alone chargeable with errors; Ptol- 
omy places Scotland almost directly east of 
Britain, instead of north of it; and Ireland 
too far north. His local topography is also 
very inaccurate, and, unless watched with dili¬ 
gence, he is apt to mislead and defeat research. 
Diod. Secul. and Pliny, the former a contem¬ 
porary of Caesar, and the latter who flourished 
in the first century of the Christian era, both, 









Caesar 


JI 5 

but - especially the former, occasionally erred. 
As well also we may class Ammianus Marcel- 
linus, lib. xv. io, whose errors respecting Gaul 
are numerous and important. But Ptolomy 
is perfectly right in relation to the position of 
the channel, and the near approach of Celto 
Galatia to Cantium. See his Map. 

In reverting to the narratives of Dio. Cass, 
and Suetonius, the site of Gessoriacum—there¬ 
fore the Morini—among whom the Oromansaci 
juncti pago qui Gesoriacus vocatur* dwelt, would, 
in the estimation of impartial scholars, rest on 
evidence sufficiently clear and decisive to place 
the case beyond the control of cavil. Now, 
sir, both of these authorities say that Claudius 
passed from Rome to Ostia. Taking passage 
here, he sailed to Marseilles, and thence by 
land to Gessoriacum.f Dion is prodigal in his 


* Pliny thus classifies, southward, “ The Toxandri Deinde 
Menapii. Morini Oromansici juncti. 

f Suet. Claud. 17. In a note. St. Omer’s Turnebus , Dio. p. 
678, ipse ab “ urbe Ostium devestus est navigio, inde Massiliam ; 
reliquoque itinere partim terra partim mari facto, ad Oceanum 
venit, transmisitque in Britanniam, & ad copias ad Pamesin se 
expectantes, perrexit. Quibus ad se receptis transgressus fluvium 
cum barbaris, qui ad ejus adventum convenerant, signis collatis 
dimicavit, victonaq $ pofius este & Camalodunum, Cynobellini 
regiam cepit multosque inde vi, alios deditione, in suam po- 
testatem accepit. Mascou, p. 128. 










Caesar. 


116 

laudation of the services of his German aux¬ 
iliaries, on account of the facility with which 
they swam the rivers, especially the Thames, 
where he awaited the arrival of his army in the 
command of Plautius. On its coming up to 
the river the whole force crossed it, defeated 
the Britons, and took possession of Camalo- 
dunum , the palace of King Cynobelline.* Now, 
sir, be pleased to bear in mind that the Em¬ 
peror was only sixteen days in Britain—a fatal 
admission ! 

The invasion of Britain by Claudius was in 
A. D. 43, a century after that of Caesar, when 
the passage from Gaul to Britain had become 
not only more frequent, but nearly universally 
so from Gessoriacum to Rutupia. This is in 
evidence; and we cannot possibly suppose that 
Claudius, coming from the south, as he did, 
would undertake to brave a journey of hun¬ 
dreds of miles ; encounter the perils of almost 
impassible swamps, morasses, bogs, intermina¬ 
ble woods, and intangible copses, which inter¬ 
vened between the Laine and the Rhine, in 


* The capital town of Cynobelline was on the north side of 
the Thames in Essex. No person will be wild enough to suppose 
that the king’s palace would be otherwise than in his own domains j 
whether at Malden or Colchester, matters not. 





Caesar . 


117 

preference to a voyage from Boulogne to the 
Thames, less perhaps than fifty miles, and free 
from the dangers, difficulties, and delays, just 
briefly mentioned, to join Plautius, then en¬ 
camped south of the Thames, where he had 
been waiting for some time, and holding in 
check the British force, which was encamped 
on the north bank of that river. 

If the theory which you, sir, have submitted 
to the award of the public, be feasible, Caesar 
and Cassivelaunus were contending for mastery 
on the shores of the North sea, over 130 miles 
from the southern bank of the Thames; of 
what avail, therefore, would the mandate of the 
Trinobantine chief be to the four kings of 
Kent ? The distance, in such an emergency, 
would be too great, and the intervening ob¬ 
stacles, noticed in a former page,* too insur¬ 
mountable to enable them to afford any efficient 
aid under such circumstances; but, if asassumed 
by the advocates of the channel theory, the 
summons dispatched to the four chiefs were 
patriotic, practical and soldierly. Moreover, 
the county of Norfolk was a part of the Iceni, 
which, according to Camden,f was a strong 


*P. 


11. 


tP. 37. 









Caefar. 


118 

nation, and unimpaired by war, having sought 
the friendship of ..the Romans, and, therefore, 
opposed to the hostile invasion of Cassivel- 
launus or his allies, and consequently would 
endeavor to throw every obstacle in the way of 
British success. These facts, coupled with the 
campaigns of Claudius and Caesar, are, in my 
estimation, more powerfully antagonistic to 
your heresy than any other on record; which, 
added to the multitude of much circumstantial 
testimony, will, it is believed, fully justify the 
attempt here made to establish a fact of history, 
which the researches of the most eminent and 
learned archaeologists, antiquarians, historians, 
local and universal, and topographers combined, 
and that too without a dissenting voice, have 
confined to the coast of Kent the chief military 
transactions of Caesar, Claudius, &c. 

The facilities, you aver, afforded to Caesar 
on the coast of Norfolk, are far superior to 
those of Kent, is more than doubtful. This 
assumption, sir, you have failed to sustain; 
the adaptability of the coast of Kent, we have 
seen, answers the requirements of the commen¬ 
taries fully and satisfactorily, as far as its 
condition 1,900 years ago can be fairly ascer¬ 
tained ; and though it is not correctly known 





Caesar. 


119 


at what precise point Caesar effected his descent 
on the coast of Kent, the fact of such descent 
cannot be denied.* In navigating the north¬ 
east coast of Norfolk, sailors are obliged to 
exercise special care, in keeping clear of the 
stupendous rocks about Cromer, or stranding 
on the flat shore, between that place and Wells. 
The dangers and difficulties which attend that 
coast, between Yarmouth and the former place, 
are frightfully perilous, as evinced by the 
number of light houses which rear their friendly 
warning to all navigating that deceitful shore of 
the Black sea. “ I was surprised,” says a writer 
of modern date, C£ in all the way from Winter- 
ton, that the farmers and country people had 
scarce a barn, shed, stable, or pales to their 
yards and gardens, or hog-sties, but what were 
built of old planks, beams, wales, timber, &c., 
the deplorable wrecks of ships, and ruins of 
mariners’ and merchants’ fortunes, and in some 
places were whole yards filled, and piled up 
very high, with the same stuff, laid up for the 


* “ And certainly, among all those trophies—relics of antiquity 
—which antiquity hath fixed upon the face of this island, there 
are none so copious, if we consider them for quantity 5 nor more 
conspicuous, if we represent them in quality, than those it hath 
left scattered upon the continent of Kent .”—Philpott to the reader. 










I 20 


Caesar . 


same building purposes.” In 1694, two hun¬ 
dred sail of light colliers left Yarmouth road, 
with a fair wind, but it changed, with a storm, 
from northeast, and they were driven at 
random; one hundred and forty went on shore 
and were dashed to pieces. On another occa¬ 
sion, the same number of ships, with one 
thousand people, were lost on this fatally 
destructive shore. Indeed, Cromer Bay is 
distinguished by the alarming epithet of the 
‘‘Devil’s Throat.”* 

Nor need we rely or confine our remarks to 
the modern history of this dangerous sea. 
Tacitus, lib. i. y c. 70, describes the horrors of 
the North sea, in a strain oflanguage extremely 
terrific and appalling. 

The pamphlet which you published in 1866, 
like the reprint of your letters, addressed to 
the editor of the Doncaster Gazette, is crowded 
with references and citations, but so disjointed, 
irrelevant and distorted, as to put them into 
the category of random suppositions, rather 
than corroborating authorities. Were they 
less numerous, and more apposite, I might 
have been tempted to critically examine them. 


* Tour through Britain, vol. i. 59. 









Caesar . 


I 2 l 


Recklessness of assertion, and carelessness of 
construction are apparantin almost every page, 
which, instead of tending to illustrate and con¬ 
firm your bold asseverations, only puzzle the 
uninitiated, and perplex the scholar. As an 
instance, I will direct your attention to p. 5, of 
your Reprint. 

“Close to the Menapii, and near to the sea, 
are the Morini.” Here, by this disruption of 
the context, you impress on the mind of the 
reader a false construction of the import of the 
passage, which is as follows: “ Close to the 
Menapii, and near to the sea, are the Morini, 
the Bellovaci, the Ambiana, the Suessiones, 
and the Caletes, as far as the outlets of the 
Seine.” Strabo , lib. iv., iij ., 5. All, except the 
Suessiones, are bounded westwardly by the 
channel. Throughout the whole of what you 
have here written you have assumed that the 
Menapii reached the river Schelde on its south¬ 
ern confines. Well, be it so, and what is the 
result? Why, plainly this, that the Morini 
were located South of that river, after whom, 
and contiguous thereto, were the Bellovaci, the 
Ambiani, the Suessiones, and the Caletes. The 
latter adjoined the estuary of the Sequana, or 
Seine. Here, sir, you will not fail to observe, 




I 22 


Caesar . 


that this seriatim arrangement runs from the 
river Schelde to the Seine, which clearly, I 
conceive, places the Morini south of the 
Schelde, and therefore about 80 to 90 miles 
south of the mouth of the Rhine. In reviewing 
your pamphlet, sir, I have not been actuated 
by any captious motive, or sinister purpose. 
If the utility of history be measured by its 
truth, its veracity is worthy of investigation, 
and deserving of scrupulous examination. As¬ 
suming the accuracy of the Commentaries, I 
have preferred to follow their guidance, when¬ 
ever practicable; but on some occasions they 
are nearly unintelligible, and difficult to bring 
within the pale of consistency. Under such 
circumstances, I have been obliged to depend 
on other testimony, and make out my case by 
legitimate deductions, and rational inference, 
in both of which cases I have endeavored to 
observe the bounds of sober criticism. 

The settlement of the true location of the 
Morini is all-important, inasmuch as on such 
settlement, the question in issue hinges. I 
have, therefore, been more prolix on that point 
than on any other, and less so on minor 
matters, which chiefly stand or fall with it. 
This fact will, I hope, satisfactorily account 





Caesar. 


1 23 

for the apparent neglect with which some few 
remarks would seem to have demanded a special 
notice. No absolute evidence of the exact 
boundaries of the Morini, I believe, is in ex¬ 
istence, but circumstantial testimony is so 
abundant and conclusive as to establish a 
reasonable idea of its actual and bona fide loca¬ 
tion, much of which has been herein adduced. 

In taking a retrospective glance of what has 
been advanced, touching this question, it will 
have been seen that the lengthy review which 
appeared in the columns of the Doncaster Ga¬ 
zette, early in the year 1867, have been here 
more fully carried out, and considerably en¬ 
larged by an array of other £hd more elaborate 
arguments,and additional material. In relation 
to the adaptability of the extensive archipelago 
between the Rhine and the Schelde, it has, I 
presume, , been successfully shown that, in 
Caesar’s time, it was wholly ineligible to sub¬ 
serve any such purpose as the absolute 
requirements which his projected invasion of 
England demanded. In animadverting on the 
testimony of Strabo, I have confined my 
remarks to the subject under review, showing 
only that his account of Britain is unreliable, 






Caesar. 


i 24 

and can only be depended on when supported 
by other authority. 

On p. 15 of your Reprint, you say: cc It is 
little short of a miracle, if all these minute par¬ 
ticulars are fulfilled on one particular part of 
this coast of Britain, and yet that place not the 
spot where Caesar landed. Show me any other 
part of Britain, where one-half of these unde¬ 
signed coincidences come together, and I will 
own myself vanquished.” 

This, Rev. sir, is one of your bold and 
presumptive challenges, which mars your other¬ 
wise well written, but abortive attempt to 
establish a position, incapable, I believe, of 
being effected. The only reply that I shall 
now offer is afforded by the fact, that the coast 
of Kent has been selected as comprising all the 
necessary prerequisites to establish the fact, 
and to be esteemed the only and exclusive 
place fit for such a purpose. For a period of 
1,500 years the invasion of Caesar has afforded 
a theme for controversy, and enlisted in its 
service the best talents of Gaul and Britain. 
Men of the most scientific attainments, anti¬ 
quaries of the rarest ability, archaeologists 
learned and industrious, and scholars of the 
largest calibre and tact, without limit, have 



Caesar. 


12 5 


ransacked the archives of Europe, delved into 
the bowels of the earth, and sought the assist¬ 
ance of the tidal phenomena, without arriving 
at a satisfactory solution; but none, before 
your reverence, dared, without a plausible 
reason, to substitute the shore of Norfolk for 
that of Kent. Yet the evidences of these em¬ 
inent men have been discarded, and their tes¬ 
timony treated with contempt and derision.* 

In conclusion, sir, I beg to repeat, may I, 
without offence, be permitted to say, that had 
you assumed a less positive manner, and stated 
your objections in a less polemic spirit, your 
ably-written pamphlet would have been more 
attractive, and more successful. But notwith¬ 
standing these blemishes, you write under a 
strong conviction of rectitude and truth, and it 
affords me infinite pleasure to find a gentleman 
and scholar, possessing talent and taste, lift 
himself above the trammels of sectarian preju¬ 
dices, lay aside for a season the more important 
avocations of his ministry, and turn his atten- 


*But, in reference to the uniformity of conviction which these 
gifted minds arrived at, you may, perhaps, say in the same chaste 
and elegant phraseology, as on a former occasion, “is that which 
<ive are accusto?ned to give, as a reason, why one sheep follows 
another.” Reprint, 18. 






Caesar 


l 26 

tion and leisure hours to the pursuit of archae¬ 
ological studies, and the investigation of 
subjects which tend to humanize the mind, 
and raise it to a niche in the Intellectual 
Temple, and there embalm it in the amber of 
everlasting durability and freshness. 

Yours, Rev. Sir: 

The Author. 


THE END. 





k 





Julius Caesar ; 


Did he Cross the Channel? 


REVIEWED; 

BY 

JOHN W A I N W R I C H T. 



































v OF O 
BINDERY 
1903 





















